Preliminary route reports from Day 4 of the Pro Farmer Tour
Preliminary Route Report with Brian Grete, eastern Tour leader
What counties (with state and district) have you sampled from?
Iowa: Johnson, Benton, Buchanan, Blackhawk, Bremer
Districts 3, 6
Corn yield range:
- 141.7 to 219.6 bpa
Corn yield average:
- 185.9 bpa
Soybean pod count range in 3’x3’ square:
- 960 to 1,670
Soybean pod count average in 3’x3’ square:
- 1,311.4
Please share a few (one to three) comments from your route:
Crops are stressed—soybeans are starting to turn and ears are starting to hang, clear signs the plants are giving up. Good yields are already built but these ears won’t be able to add anything at the end of the growing season. Foliar issues were prevalent in corn, with the lower canopy of leaves fired, leaving stalk quality lacking a lot to be desired. Soybean disease and weed pressure has been minimal.
Preliminary Route Report with Mark Bernard, eastern Tour consultant
What counties (with state and district) have you sampled from?
Iowa: Johnson, Poweshiek, Jasper, Story
Corn yield range:
- 84 to 224 bpa
Corn yield average:
- 178 bpa
Soybean pod count range in 3’x3’ square:
- 936 to 2,170
Soybean pod count average in 3’x3’ square:
- 1,329
Please share a few comments from your route:
Saw the good, bad and the ugly today—some really decent corn and some that was just awful. Fortunately, the just awfuls are not going to be as numerous as the good ones, but there was a fair amount of just “good” ones too. This is certainly not the crop the USDA saw. Crop was healthy overall, with some at 1/2 milk line—the heat is really pushing it hard and could ultimately lighten test weights in the end.
Got some issues brewing out here in soybeans—SDS is appearing, but it’s in its earlier stages right now and how widespread it becomes remains to be seen. Likewise with white mold—some of the fields we sampled had it we could pick out fields that had it just driving by.
Preliminary Route Report with Chip Flory, western Tour leader
What counties (with state and district) have you sampled from?
Minnesota: Martin, Faribault, Blue Earth, Waseca, Steele
District 8
Corn yield range:
- 124.5 to 203.8 bpa
Corn yield average:
- 172.05 bpa
Soybean pod count range in 3’x3’ square:
- 604.8 to 1,305.2
Soybean pod count average in 3’x3’ square:
- 1,038.8
Please share a few comments from your route:
We made our way over to south central Minnesota—saw really good corn in the Worthington area, but as we drove from crop district 9 into 8, it was like there was a curtain—corn yields got extremely variable due to lack of rainfall. Crossing over I-35 on Hwy 30, it’s like you enter a different world. This is some of the worst drought stressed crops we’ve seen the whole trip in SW MN. We were 20 miles east of I-35 and still in it.
Outside of the stress the soybeans are showing east of I-35, it was an uneventful day. No disease, but plenty of variability in pod counts. Though there was one field where aphids caught my attention.
Preliminary Route Report with Brent Judisch, western Tour consultant
What counties (with state and district) have you sampled from?
Minnesota: Martin, Watonwan, Faribault, Blue Earth, Waseca, Freeborn
Corn yield range:
- 109.4 To 259.9 bpa
Corn yield average:
- 184.2 bpa
Soybean pod count range in 3’x3’ square:
- 512 to 1527
Soybean pod count average in 3’x3’ square:
- 929
Please share a few comments from your route:
Corn looks solid, but we’ve seen extreme variability—had corn that looked so-so from the road, but the sample was 220 bu., then some that looked good from the road and the sample yielded 180 bu. We don’t normally see a lot of 20-inch corn, but our better samples came from 20-inch rows. Some corn hasn’t dented, and some has reached 1/2 to 2/3 milk line. No major diseases but have had 5 or 6 fields that have lodging from obvious wind damage in martin and Watonwan counties.
Beans have looked good from the road all day, haven’t seen any that look stressed at all. Nice deep green color, stands are good, just not seeing normal clusters of pods—likely due to the cooler spring. There just aren’t enough nodes to make beans. Think yields could still be average if it rains, but weather forecasts look dry for the next couple of weeks.
