Heavy rain last week sparked relief or stress after a patchy season of dryness and downpours.

Widespread rain across the state has blessed thirsty fields in southern and western Iowa, nourished central Iowa crops but smothered some northern Iowa fields with a surplus of moisture as the row-crop growing season reaches its midway point.

In a year marked by the haves and have-nots of precipitation from April through mid-June, most of the state received their fair share of measurable precipitation June 23-26, paving the way for corn and soybean growth to explode in some areas while others now are hoping for the spigot to shut off and let fields dry out.

In western Pottawattamie County, Zach and Ashlyn Elliott had been watching the skies for weeks. 

While the corn and soybeans were faring okay, curling leaves signaled stress in corn, and soybean roots began searching deeper for available moisture before last week’s rain arrived.

“We have definitely been blessed,” Ashlyn Elliott said June 25. “We got anywhere between 3 and 4 inches between most of our places the last two to three days. I can’t even believe it … We’ve been so, so dry, and it all came in one shot the last couple of days.”

Elliott said overnight the corn and beans perked up. “We’ve already seen the growth coming on … The corn was starting to get really reserved …, curling in the leaves trying to protect itself from ...