(Undated)– It’s still a little too early to tell for sure, but experts say all of that snow we received this past winter more than likely didn’t do a whole lot to replenish depleted subsoil moisture. Gentry Sorenson, a Field Agronomist with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, says the frozen soil prevented most of the snowmelt from making its way into the ground. He says while it’s likely the situation has improved somewhat, we will still be going into the upcoming growing season with a deficit…
Sorenson says they’ll have a better handle on just what the exact subsoil moisture levels are in coming weeks…
Sorenson says corn and soybean crops require about 20 inches of rainfall and subsoil moisture through the season to produce a crop. He says that can increase to 25 inches per season when temperatures are high and there’s a lot of wind.
About 2.44 inches of plant available moisture was measured last fall near Spirit Lake. Amounts were much less just to the south. The level at Rossie in Clay county was a half inch.
