Harvest is entering the homestretch across Iowa. 

“Soybean harvest is beginning to wrap up, and Iowa farmers are making big strides toward finishing corn harvest,” Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig said last week. “While the persistently dry conditions have helped push harvest progress along, moderate drought continues to spread statewide and is now covering nearly half of Iowa.”

Row crop harvest remained ahead of average with soybean harvest reaching 88% complete, 11 days ahead of the five-year average, for the week ending Oct. 23, according to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Corn harvest reached 59% complete statewide, one day ahead of last year and eight days ahead of the average, but progress varied widely by region. In northwest Iowa, farmers had harvested 82% of the corn crop, while progress was just 39% in south central Iowa and 38% in northeast Iowa.

Spokesman photographer Conrad Schmidt captured the images below during the past month. Clockwise, from the top, the Oberbroeckling family harvests soybeans in Winneshiek County near Castalia; the Pickard family inspects and harvests corn in Marshall County; and Ethan Lambert of Wright County and his grandpa, Raymond Houck, take a break during a day of harvesting corn.