Day one of the Pro Farmer Crop Tour is always a rush – we have scouts on the tour who have been along for this ride for over 20 years, a few even over 30. Every year it is great to hear about how their families have been and how their crops look. The numbers are important, but great company makes this tour even better!
The process during Crop Tour entails the same analysis they started 33 years ago. After scouts are in a random field, they send the sample data to the ‘Data Bunker’ and we record every sample that is pulled. All the data by district is aggregated together and the raw yield data is released each night as we wrap up state by state. There’s no analysis on the data, these are simply calculated yields from the raw data that was collected during the day. That makes the tour a great source of information to gain insights from boots on the ground to help you with decisions on your own operation. We do this tour with farmers, for farmers, and it’s a joy seeing it come together every year.
Tonight we released numbers for the first two states – Ohio and South Dakota. Ohio came in strong with the highest corn yield – 185.69 bu./acre - we’ve sampled through the state. This year’s yield beat the 2021 yield by 0.3%, when it recorded a 185.06 bu./acre. The interesting piece of the Ohio yield was the low ear count, yes you read that correct. Even with the record, it’s the lowest ear count we’ve sampled since 2020, meaning grain inches and kernel rows around carried the crop to its new record. Impressive, but many scouts noted poor stands, dry conditions, and a stronger than normal appearance of Southern Rust. Those three combined can put this crop at risk.
The Ohio beans were also impressive, but couldn’t beat the standing record of 1,342 pods in a 3x3 sq set back in 2014. The 2025 yield came in at 1,287.28 pods in a 3x3 sq. Although the largest pod count sampled in the last 10 years, they are lacking crucial August moisture. Rains in the next couple weeks will be critical for pod fill.
South Dakota corn came in at 174.18 bu./acre after the scouts pulled 83 samples throughout the state on Monday morning. Although not a record, it boasted a high ear count and moisture to support solid grain fill heading into harvest. Scouts noticed many diseases, especially Southern Rust and Gray Leaf Spot, which have had the moisture and heat to progress. The disease environment is in the making to potentially limit the yield opportunity.
The South Dakota soybean crop is a situation we haven’t seen in Crop Tour history, making it hard to compare to years past. Not in yield, but in soil moisture. We use a scale of 1-6 for soil moisture, 1 being extremely dry and 6 being saturated soils. We recorded a 5.53 average for our soil rating, with years like 2018, 2015, and 2007 being the only others with a rating over 5. We sampled an average of 1,188.45 pods in a 3x3 sq. throughout SD. The SD crop has a great pod count for good pod development & fill and all the moisture to make it happen. Maturity is a touch ahead of pace making the crop in a good position to finish strong.
Wrapping up today, scouts got a jump start in Nebraska and Indiana. They covered the NE/NC area of NE and the western side of IN. Tomorrow they’ll move into southeast Nebraska and eastern Indiana and we’ll release both state’s final yields tomorrow night in Nebraska City, NE and Bloomington, IL. You can also watch the results Live at www.agweb.com/croptour.