Field Notes Chats Corn with Iowa Farmer April Hemmes

This week, the National Corn Growers Association continued its eighth season of Field Notes, a series that takes readers behind the farm gate to follow the year in the life of American farm families. While these growers come from diverse geographic areas and run unique operations, they share a common love for U.S. agriculture and the basic values that underpin life in farming communities.

Yesterday, Field Notes caught up with April Hemmes, who farms in northern Iowa. While recent reports have indicated national average yields for corn may set a new record this year, she does not think that the yields she, or other farmers near her, will see at harvest have record-setting potential.

“We aren’t seeing the record yields in our fields here, but I am on the edge of the part of the state that was very wet this year,” Hemmes explained. “I know that the farmers in northwest Iowa and along the Iowa and Minnesota border definitely will not see record yields either.

“It looks good, but you know that there are problem spots. I think that there will be some surprises at harvest. I was scouting my fields and saw some goose necking. The roots just are not there because it was wet early in the season. It was tasseled corn, and I pulled it out with one hand.”

To listen to the full interview, click here.

Stay tuned over the coming weeks as Field Notes follows the growers who have opened their farms, families and communities up this year and meet the true faces of modern American agriculture.