04/28/25 Afternoon CommStock Report – A Good Start in Some Rough Going

Instead of having one crop planted in April and another one in June like last year, both our corn/soybeans got planted together early for a change. We had gotten some moisture recharge at the beginning of spring along with a couple inches of April showers out of recent rains to get the crops off to a good start. This should get us some way down the road toward pollination. Royal Iowa has had year to date precip of 4.6 inches compared to an average 6.1. The long-range forecasts suggest that summer will be drier and warmer than usual, at least for the western half of the corn-belt and plains. Analog comparative years appear to back that up. Early planting is one defense against summer drought. The forecast looks to be drying out ahead with warming temps in May that should give farmers an open planting window for a change. While our local rainfall totals were on the low side, much of the corn-belt did get a recharge from recent rain systems. The location of the Bermuda high is facilitating the air flow from the gulf being open and a lot of moisture has been flowing up into portions of the…