From the Data Bunker | Aug. 18, 2021 (Emily Carolan)

From the Data Bunker- Day 3

Well, there it is – Day 3! We made our way through the rest of Illinois with the eastern leg of the tour and the western leg went through crop districts 1, 4, & 7 in Iowa. There were two big surprises out of Iowa: west central Iowa corn yields and southwest Iowa bean pod count. The biggest surprise from Illinois was that the numbers didn’t seem to validate outsized yield expectations going into this week.

Let’s dive into the numbers!

The Illinois crop came in strong, but there were a few areas where we thought it would have shined just a touch brighter. The only measure that was up was ear count. I know, I talked about it earlier this week that more ears is the biggest impact in yield but what we measured for grain inches and kernel rows around were down compared to last year. We were up over 5% on ear counts in a 60 ft. row from last year and up 2% compared to the 3-year average. The scouts commented on the variation in maturity of the Illinois stops and it was more variable than expected.

The bean crop was a touch ahead of last year and the three-year average. Not much chatter about insect pressure or disease was mentioned by the eastern scouts. Many scouts mentioned that the crop seemed very average and nothing to really be too surprised about.

Into Iowa! The western side of the state was sampled today, and we busted somewhat of a rumor of drought-stricken corn in the west-central crop district. This area is Iowa always seems to surprise us. More times than not, the growers in this area say they do better under dry conditions. The western Iowa crop is very hard to estimate from the road. The variability increased as we moved into the northwest corner. One big difference compared to last year- ear counts were up big through the three districts. It gives the western Iowa crop more of an opportunity to finish strong if rains come.

The one agronomic issue we ran into was rootworm feeding present in many Iowa corn fields. The beetles were thick and lodging was apparent walking through almost every corn on corn field. Not much disease was present but we did notice a touch of gray leaf spot.

The Iowa beans were also more impressive than expected, especially the far southwest corner, which was up on pod counts 17% from last year. The beans showed a touch more water hemp than we have found in the past along with the start of SDS scattered through the routes.

Tomorrow is the last scouting day of the tour where the eastern leg will work through eastern Iowa and eastern Minnesota. The western leg will work through western Minnesota where everyone will meet up in Rochester for the final night results of the crop tour!