The soils across the region gained much moisture over the winter and early spring months when compared to samples taken last fall. Some fields picked up as much as six inches of water since last November. Yet areas in Monona, Ida, Sac and Crawford counties still require more rainfall to bring the soil profile up to Capacity. In many areas, the soil profile is still only at 50 to 60 % of capacity for plant available water (PAW). PAW ranges from a low of 31% of capacity in a Monona county alfalfa field to a high of 86% of capacity in a Sac county soybean field. Due to wet conditions in Buena Vista and Pocahontas counties during the sampling period, samples were not taken in these counties and the profiles were assumed to be filled to capacity.

Table 1 shows the inches of plant available water (PAW) for the top five feet of the soil profile at the sampling locations. Table 2 shows the percent of PAW that is present compared to a soil profile filled to capacity