About Pro Farmer Crop Tour

2024 Crop Tour Schedule  |  Frequently Asked Questions.   

The Pro Farmer Crop Tour’s primary goal is to provide the industry with accurate growing season information about likely corn and soybean yields at the state and regional levels during the upcoming harvest season.

Crop Tour's data-gathering methods are disciplined and produce consistent results. Results from the Tour have a big impact on Pro Farmer Newsletter’s annual crop production estimate released at week’s end. But observations gathered during the Tour can be just as important as the data itself.

“We pull enough samples to provide us with accurate data for a large geographic area. The Pro Farmer Crop Tour does not attempt to predict actual yields for individual fields or even a county, but we do want to have a good handle on likely yields for each of the seven states we survey,” says Pro Farmer Editor Brian Grete.

Crop Tour Scouts Find Eastern Iowa, Southern Minnesota in Dire Need of Rain to Salvage Yields
Crop Tour Scouts Find Eastern Iowa, Southern Minnesota in Dire Need of Rain to Salvage Yields

Scouts saw drought damage instead of derecho devastation in eastern and north-central portions of Iowa on the Pro Farmer Crop Tour this year. Minnesota was much the same, with fields showing clear signs of stress.

2021 Crop Tour results: Iowa
2021 Crop Tour results: Iowa

Scouts measured average corn yield potential of 190.8 bu. per acre. Pod counts in a 3’x3’ square averaged 1.218.

2021 Crop Tour results: Minnesota
2021 Crop Tour results: Minnesota

Scouts measured average corn yield potential of 177.4 bu. per acre. Pod counts in a 3’x3’ square averaged 1,027.

Watch Crop Tour Live | Day 4
Watch Crop Tour Live | Day 4

Tune in for coverage of the last day of coverage with scouts sampling fields in Iowa and Minnesota. Results for these states will be unveiled at 8:00 p.m. CT.

crop tour corn sample
Midday Route Reports | Day 4

Get preliminary route reports from Crop Tour leaders as they make their way through Iowa and Minnesota on the final day of the tour.