The \peak\ of the corn harvest in Iowa occurs, on average around October 8.
Trust Grassley
Iowa and South Dakota corn did not look good to me....some already fully brown....most stalks seem shorter then normal, and we drive across country usually once a year...
Pennsylvania corn looked good though...
some of these farms and ranches have no other advantage such as being near a large body of water, or scenic mountains or forests...
the only reason a lot of them still exist is the prop up of the corn industry....
but I doubt other crops would work....
I think part of the problem with the Dust bowl is that our govt subsidized wheat production and people got greedy and plowed up too many fields which died off and blew away....and they kept double downing each year to "make up" for the poor crop only to find the poor crops hung around for several yrs before normal rain patterns returned.