The local corn crop looks pretty good - as long as you are looking in the right place.

In most fields, the crop is tall and lush. But it is easy to spot an occasional low spot where the corn is stunted or yellow, or the ground is bare because of heavy rains.

"It kind of depends on where you are looking," said Virgil Schmitt, an agronomist with the Iowa State University Extension. "There is some variability in a very short distance.

"It is just a symptom of the rainfall pattern we've had."

Not everyone is seeing the yellow or stunted plants, said Dave Martz, who farms near Blue Grass.

"I think the crop looks pretty good around here," he said. "The people in Chicago must have thought so too, because the price went down."

Corn futures on the Chicago Board of Trade were at $3.45 per bushel Thursday, down from $4.49 a bushel at the start of June.

Farmers say the recent hot, dry weather has been good for corn. Despite the heat, soil moisture was abundant.

"That last week of hot temperatures really helped quite a bit," said Phil Fuhr, president of the Rock Island County Farm Bureau. "It brought it along quite a ways."

Fuhr said the soggy spring that hindered farmers from planting will keep this year from bringing record yields.

"We aren't going to have a record crop because of the rain, but we could have an average crop," he said.

Martz and Fuhr say the crop is slightly behind so it will mature later than usual in some places.

"It kind of depends on when it was planted," Martz said. "Some of the later stuff will take a few weeks yet, but I think for the most part, things look pretty decent around here."

In a perfect growing season, temperatures would be warmer than normal in May and June, followed by cooler than normal temperatures in July and August, Schmitt said.

"You want to get crops started early, become as mature as possible and then go into reproduction," he said, "then cool off to extend seed."

Schmitt recalls that the last year that formula held true was 1994 - and it brought a record yield that stood until 2002. The current record was set in 2004, when the per-acre yield was 181 bushels.

"We've had years where we've gotten three of the four months right, but not all four months right," he said.