An annual proclamation signed by the governor of Iowa makes transporting crops during harvest season easier for farmers.
By Molly Hunter
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a proclamation on Sept. 18 allowing farmers to move overweight loads of harvest goods in Iowa without a special permit until Nov. 17.
The proclamation allows overweight loads of corn, soybeans, hay, straw, silage, and stover in the state.
The exemption applies only to state and local roads, not federal interstate highways. Posted limits on bridges also remain in effect.
“A farmer can haul basically 12.5 percent more on each axle of the truck, up to a max of 90,000 pounds,” said Mark Recker, the president of the Iowa Corn Grower’s Association. “It allows us to move more product.”
Dustin Vande Hoef, communications director for the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, said the proclamation has been issued annually for years. Typically, the Iowa Corn Growers Association makes the request for the 60-day exemption, he said.
“It allows us to speed along the harvesting of our crop, finish harvest a little sooner,” Recker said.
In Iowa, he said, the priority right now is largely on transporting corn and soybeans. If left too long in the fields, the quality of those crops begins to deteriorate.
“We grow large crops anyway, and year to year they’re larger — but sometimes we run into issues where harvest stability becomes an issue, stalk quality of corn becomes an issue where it starts to fall down in the field,” Recker said. “So being able to haul more corn on each load allows us to be more efficient and get things harvested faster.”
Not only does the proclamation increase efficiency during harvest time, it also addresses safety concerns about the transportation of large truck loads.
“This proclamation ensures [Iowa’s farmers are] able to transport their crops ahead of deteriorating weather conditions,” Reynolds said in a Sept. 18 press release provided by her office.
Getting big loads off the roads becomes more and more important as Iowa heads into winter and sees increasingly unpredictable weather.
“We don’t know what the weather’s going to be like in November,” Recker said. “Weather can turn pretty nasty depending on the year, so being able to get our crop out before the weather turns bad is also very important.”
The Sept. 18 release said the Iowa Department of Transportation will facilitate the movement of the trucks carrying the state’s harvest and will keep an eye on things to ensure public safety.
“You consider the amount of production — 22 million acres of corn and soybeans, how many billion bushels of corn that is — if you can reduce the number of trips by a certain percent, that’s a significant amount, that keeps the trucks off the road and produces some safety in that regard,” Vande Hoef said.