A rare string of dry days last week allowed farmers, agronomists and others to assess the damage to crops, fields and conservation structures left after extremely-heavy rains pummelled several counties of north central and northeast Iowa the week before.

It wasn’t a pretty sight.

The rains, which exceeded 12 inches in areas of Butler and Floyd counties, flooded low-lying fields, leveling soybeans and rising up to the ears of the harvest-ready corn. The floods and saturated fields are raising concerns about grain quality throughout the region, farmers and agronomists said.

There is also concern that heavy rains damaged or destroyed conservation structures, such as terraces and grassed waterways.

And the rains, falling just as the crops...