Another great day with the scouts! The two legs pulled a total of 391 corn samples and 381 bean samples from Indiana, Illinois, and Nebraska combined. It’s amazing what miles can be put on while gathering valuable data.
Two new records came out of the samples today – a new Indiana corn tour yield record and the largest bean pod count we’ve sampled in Nebraska. Both come with big potential but also many challenges that could steal yield if the right environment presents itself.
Indiana corn took out the previous record set in 2021 (193.48) with a 193.82 bu./acre. The scouts had many comments about the variability throughout the state but there were strong yields found in the southern part of the state, pulling the yield up. The attributes that helped with reaching the new record was the ear count and grain inches. It was the highest population sampled in tour history and the 2nd highest grain inches recorded. This will help fight off damage that disease and lack of moisture can do to the crop.
Indiana beans came in at 1,376.59 pods in a 3x3 area. This was down 2.3% from 2024 and there are two other years with higher pod counts than what we sampled this year. We have to go all the way back to 2024 with a 1,396 3x3 pod count and 2005 which came in at 1,398 3x3 pod count. It goes to show higher pod count doesn’t directly corelate to larger yield. Many other factors come into play and beans that have higher pod counts have smaller weight per bean, because of the energy a bean plant can put towards pod fill. Contributing factors also include moisture and maturity. The Indiana bean crop is more mature than previous years, a sign of stress and rushing to finish, and is dryer than the past 10 years of Crop Tour.
Nebraska corn came in strong at 179.50 bu./acre, but did not take the record set back in 2018 at 182.35 bu./acre. It was a large ear count but still not the highest, with 2021 and 2023 being higher. This corn crop is big but I would say has the most to lose compared to the states we’ve toured so far this week. 35% of samples were rated higher for disease pressure and many comments came in mentioning Southern Rust was present. Southern rust can destroy a corn crop that is unprotected in a very short amount of time and we witnessed it mid-progression today. The scouts commented on leaving corn fields covered in orange dust from the severity of the infestation of the disease.
Nebraska beans were a new pod count record, 1,248.31 pods in a 3x3 area, topping the previous record set in 2010 at 1,306.35. Many scouts commented on the lack of irrigation tracks and noticed some pivots hadn’t moved all season because of the higher than normal rainfall totals. Soil moisture was the strongest it’s been since 2018. The pods are there for a large yield potential – now it needs a strong finish with limited disease. SDS and Brown Stem Rot we’re most noted diseases from the scouts.
Tomorrow the eastern leg will finish up Illinois after getting a jump on samples today while the western leg begins their trek through western Iowa. We’ll announce the Illinois and western Iowa numbers tomorrow night in Iowa City, IA for the eastern leg and for the western leg in Spencer, IA.