Ray Gaesser:
A southwest Iowa farmer says his 2026 growing season is off to a strong start.
Ray Gaesser tells Brownfield, “Our corn is basically knee high and growing nicely. The bean stands are pretty good on our farm.”
He says some producers in his area have dealt with soybean emergence issues.
“We didn’t have to replant luckily. I don’t know exactly why, but we didn’t. We also didn’t till anything, and I think that avoided some of the (soil) crusting issues.”
Gaesser says it’s been a wet start to the growing season, and his county has been removed from coverage on the U.S. Drought Monitor.
“We are beginning to have excess moisture,” he said. “We’ve just had a lot of rain in the last couple of weeks, and a fair amount before. We’re starting to see the soil be pretty saturated.”
He says the moisture boost gives him optimism for the 2026 crop year.
