Corn Harvest

[Walleye Guy]

Can anybody shed any light on how the corn harvest in the northern portion of Iowa is coming along? Just wondering what to expect for the pheasant opener.

[Whisker Trout Slayer]

To try and put a percentage on it, 5% done. Lots of corn in the fields yet, with some guys starting to open end rows. A couple of the guys with lighter soils have more out. It will be tough with the corn in, but there are not a lot of birds out there. Last weekend was the youth weekend and we only seen 1 bird while driving, and that was on private ground which ran into a corn field. We walked a bunch of ground, with a dog, that normally produced birds but none.

So good luck be safe and hope they hit the corn hard this week.

[Esox_Magnum]

With the wet forcast I won't expect much more coming out.

[delmuts]

many of the farmers have been trying to hit it hard the last few days, i'm guessing about 5%. but! with rain in the forecast tues night thru wed. it will be slow. i finally heard some roosters cackle sat morn. other than that i hadn't heard any!i'm located 40 mi. N.E. of waterloo. del

[onlyspringers]

I don't know about the northern part of the state but in west central Iowa I would guess less than 5% is out. Visited the farms we hunt yesterday and my brother-in-law was just getting started. He said that given the forcast for heavy rain he would be lucky to be out of the fields by Thanksgiving. As far as bird numbers there are some parts that will have a fair amount of birds and others that will have none. Depends on the amount of cover they had. I live by Ames and have seen a fair amount of birds on the public lands where I work the dogs and my brother-in-law said he has seen at least as many birds this year as he did last year.

[Whisker Trout Slayer]

Oh yeah I am in the Mason City area. They are out today trying to hit it hard, but the radar shows rain out to the west so I don't know how much they can get out in that amount of time.

Either way be safe and wear as much orange that you can.

[Esox_Magnum]

Already off and on showers here in the IGL's area.

[NWBuck]

Perfect amount of corn out for opener....very little. Saves a bunch of birds for later in the season. Looks like rain here most of the day, so doubt anything will get done until at least Friday.

NWBuck

[delmuts]

Hmm! now they are talking chance of rain thru sat. morning. so the corn harvest will be on hold for a while.

[Whisker Trout Slayer]

delmuts,

Is there still a lot of corn in around the Aldo Leopold Area? I will be back in my hometown of Readlyn for my cousins wedding this weekend. I know, she needs to check with me first on what hunting seasons are going on first, but she didn't. At least I will still be able to get out in the morning.

[delmuts]

can't say for certain. the have a sign up saying the black top is is closed, so i didn't go that way today.i would guess most is still standing. they were having rain there today. ( once i got passed[N] of hwy 3 it was much drier!)waterloo had water sitting in the fields this noon. doubt any corn will go till next weeke ! del

[NWBuck]

Did a little "informal" roadside count on my daily morning bus route this morning. Counted harvested fields versus unharvested fields along the side of the road for about the second half of the route. Results...11 harvested fields, 43 unharvested. Among those unharvested fields, several had end rows out or were partially harvested, so if your hunting ground happens to be waterways where the first 40 or 50 rows are out, that will certainly help. Also, among the 11 harvested fields, all but 2 were very small acre fields...like less than 20 acres. So yeah, I'd say the 5-10% harvested acres estimate is pretty close. And given the fact that it's been raining here literally all day long, it isn't going to be any better by the weekend. Mid November should be peak bird hunting time in this area of the state.

NWBuck

[Esox_Magnum]

Here in NW Iowa Spencer had .91" at noon and it rained all afternoon and still raining pretty good at almost 8pm. Souix City reported record rainfall for todays date. I havent been out of the lakes area for awhile, most the beans been out for a week or so but little corns came out. My guess is once the birds get blown from cover on Sat morning they wont have much reason to leave the safty of the corn fields with the warm forcasted temps. I'll be on the lake enjoying a peacefull day chasing muskies.

Good luck to all and be safe.