Harvest kicks into high gear in Iowa

The Waterloo, Iowa region's soybean crop is living up to the hype, as John Deere combine harvesters can be spotted in fields across the region while farmers collect on their yields.
The Waterloo, Iowa region's soybean crop is living up to the hype, as John Deere combine harvesters can be spotted in fields across the region while farmers collect on their yields.
The Waterloo, Iowa region's soybean crop is living up to the hype, as John Deere combine harvesters can be spotted in fields across the region while farmers collect on their yields, The Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier reported.

Farm equipment lined the fields as farmers who harvest soybeans were much more optimistic about their yield than that of their counterparts, according to the news source.

"I'm pretty pleased with that," John Hoffman, former president of the American Soybean Association, told the Courier. "We're having an average to above-average crop year. I don't think it was a bad year disease-wise, and aphids were a nonissue."

Hoffman noted that the yield monitor on his John Deere combine bounced between 67 to 76 bushels per acre, and he remained positive about the state of his harvest considering the tough season for crops, according to the news source.

The United States Department of Agriculture reported that although the initial conditions were rough, the total net farm income is forecast at more than 31 percent higher than what it was in 2010.