Iowa farmers took advantage of a rare week of dry mid-October weather to make sizeable progress on soybean harvest in most parts of the state.

“There’s very few beans left around here anymore,” Chris Ten Napel, a Sioux County Farm Bureau member who farms near Ireton, said Oct. 24. “We had a pretty good run at it last week.”

More than 30% of the state’s soybean crop was harvested during the week ending Oct. 20 as farmers enjoyed more than five days deemed “suitable” for fieldwork, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) weekly crop progress report. The activity brought the statewide total of soybeans harvested to 48%, still five days behind average but four days ahead of last year. The report marks...