Last Week’s Rainfall Was A Welcome Sight
April 20, 2012 by Jacob Bates, CCA
Last Week’s Rainfall Was A Welcome Sight
It’s no secret going through last fall and winter that we have been running short on soil moisture. The rainfall that most of the state received last weekend was a welcome sight. Most of western Iowa received at least one inch of rainfall last Friday and Saturday. Some areas received too much rain, too fast causing soil erosion amongst other problems.
While the rainfall we received last weekend will not fix all of our moisture problems, it will help us get the corn crop off to a good start. First, for the corn that was planted in dry dirt before the rain it will provide the needed moisture for emergence. Second, once we are able to get back into the field there should now be adequate moisture in the topsoil to make sure seeds are not sitting in dry soils.
The benefits of our recent rainfall are already evident in the Iowa Crops and Weather Report that came out on Tuesday. This report from the USDA records the moisture levels in both the topsoil and subsoil profiles. I have graphed the data profiles below from the previous two weeks. The report from April 8th represents how the soil profile looked prior to the rainfall. The April 15th report gives the most up to date look at our soil profiles across the state’s reporting districts. This data is reported in percentages of the profile being very short, short, adequate and surplus of moisture.
Notice that the percentages for the surplus and adequate levels all gained with the recent rainfall while the short and very short percentages decreased (one exception is the North Central district). As expected, these swings in moisture levels are much more noticeable in the topsoil profile than in the subsoil profile.
Figure 1. Topsoil moisture levels for 6 crop reporting districts across Iowa
Figure 2. Subsoil moisture levels for 6 crop reporting districts across Iowa.
After examining the graphs it is evident that the moisture last week replenished the upper soil profile to help our corn crop emerge. However, when looking at subsoil moisture you can still see the effects of the previous 9-month lack of rainfall. More so this year than previous years, timely rains will be necessary to help us sustain this crop throughout the growing season.
