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Fast soybean planting pace in southwest Iowa

A southwest Iowa farmer says soybean planting has been progressing at a rapid pace in his area.

Jeff Jorgenson raises soybeans, corn, and owns a cow/calf operation near Sidney. “This is probably the earliest bean planting that we’ve ever had,” he said. “We have not planted any corn. We kind of decided we were going to focus on soybeans, so we kind of went after that. But there’s actually been a fair amount of crop planted in this territory.”

He tells Brownfield extremely dry field conditions were the reason he started planting on April 11^th. “The ground’s really dry and actually is working pretty well, but it is April and it might be a touch early. I guess we’re going to know by the end of the month or early May if we made the right decision, but for sure right now it seems that we have.”

Jorgenson says he remains concerned about the dry 2024 growing season despite raising a better-than-expected crop during last year’s drought.