Despite this week’s heat, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture optimistic about crop conditions

HANLONTOWN — The state’s agriculture secretary is optimistic about the impact of this week’s hot weather on the state’s crops.

Mike Naig says some cooler weather in the last few weeks has helped, but there’s still concerns as the entire state continues to experience drought conditions.  “You still look at the Drought Monitor in the state of Iowa, and we technically have significant drought, and there are some persistently dry locations, particularly western Iowa, southeast Iowa’s got a bullseye over it  from a dry standpoint. We are below average largely across the state in terms of precipitation, but it’s true that within the last month or so, we’ve had a more active weather pattern, and that’s been good. We’re also seeing a lot of tassels coming out on that corn crop right now, and to turn the temperature down the last week or so has been phenomenal.”

Naig says rain over the last month has calmed his nerves over this year’s crop.  “It’s good to see the more active weather pattern, I think that bodes well and gives me reason to be optimistic.”

The latest Iowa Drought Monitor map shows all of north-central Iowa is in the “D-1” Moderate Drought category, except for northern Kossuth and far northwestern Winnebago counties, which are in the “D-0” Abnormally Dry level.