Midday Route Reports | Day 2
Preliminary Route Report with Brent Judisch, western Tour consultant
What counties have you sampled from?
- Nebraska: Hamilton (6), York (6), Fillmore (9) and Saline (9)
Corn yield range:
- 143.7 bpa to 252.3 bpa
Corn yield average:
- 193.2 bpa
Soybean pod count range in 3’x3’ square:
- 864 pods to 1,967 pods
Soybean pod count average in 3’x3’ square:
- 1,412 pods
Please share a few comments from your route:
We’ve had an extremely consistent crop—for both corn and beans. Every stop has been irrigated. We’ve also had essentially an extremely healthy crop with no major disease for corn or soybeans. We haven’t seen much wind damage either today or yesterday. It’s an extremely good standing crop with no bug or fungus issues to this point.
We stopped to talk with a local farmer. He said the crop is in great shape, but they are having to water more than they normally do—pretty much around the clock.
We did have one low beans sample that came from a wide, 36-inch row. Other than that, our pod counts have been really consistent.
Preliminary Route Report with Bruce Blythe, western Tour leader
What counties have you sampled from?
- Nebraska: Saline (9), Lancaster (6) and Gage (9)
Corn yield range:
- 131.3 bpa to 216.7 bpa
Corn yield average:
- 167.8 bpa
Soybean pod count range in 3’x3’ square:
- 1,293 pods to 1,967 pods
Soybean pod count average in 3’x3’ square:
- 1,450.3 pods
Please share a few comments from your route:
Irrigated crops were in pretty good shape. Got some corn that topped 200 bu. per acre in some parts of southeast Nebraska. But it’s still dry. Dryland corn looks pretty brown. Obviously haven’t seen much rain in a while. Dryland acres have been getting steadily worse.
We saw one field with with heavy greensnap. But no real insect or disease problems that we could see. But driving from Grand Island to southeast Nebraska, irrigation booms are running. Farmer are going full bore on irrigation where they had it.
Pod counts seemed pretty average. And there have been no major bugs or disease issues.
Preliminary Route Report with Brian Grete, eastern Tour leader
What counties have you sampled from?
- Indiana: Hamilton (5), Tipton (5), Howard (5), Carroll (2), Cass (2), Pulaski (1), Jasper (1) and Newton (1)
Corn yield range:
- 176.5 bpa to 256.6 bpa
Corn yield average:
- 202.9 bpa
Soybean pod count range in 3’x3’ square:
- 528 pods to 1,674 pods
Soybean pod count average in 3’x3’ square:
- 1,072 pods
Please share a few comments from your route:
We saw some dryness today, but it’s still a really strong crop. You can tell it got off to a great start. It’s holding on and hoping for a late-season rain. Corn along our route was really solid and generally near the average. Beans were more variable on pod counts.
There was heavy fog this morning. Crops seem to be getting by on that limited moisture for the moment. But it was definitely drier from Indianapolis through Logansport, especially as you got further north.
Preliminary Route Report with Mark Bernard, eastern Tour consultant
What counties (with state and district) have you sampled from?
- Indiana: Jasper (1) and Newton (1)
- Illinois: Iroquois (5), Ford (5) and Livingston (5)
Corn yield range:
- Indiana: 176 bpa to 183 bpa
- Illinois: 112 bpa to 223 bpa
Corn yield average:
- Indiana: 180 bpa
- Illinois: 158
Soybean pod count range in 3’x3’ square:
- Indiana: 581 pods to 1,529 pods
- Illinois: 857 pods to 1589 pods
Soybean pod count average in 3’x3’ square:
- Indiana: 1,055 pods
- Illinois: 1,249 pods
Please share a few comments from your route:
We only pulled a few corn samples in Indiana and nothing was too surprising. The corn crop was decent, but not knock-your-socks-off. The last sample we pulled had northern corn leaf blight.
In Illinois, we had a couple corn samples with drainage and uneven pollination issues. But they were in an area prone to both flooding and drought. But the rest of the corn along our route was really solid. And as we’re moving west we’re getting into better soils and likely better yields.
In one Indiana bean field, it looked like it had been too wet, which delayed planting of the no-till field.
Illinois soybeans are phenomenal. The nice, tall bean plants are loaded with pods. Generally 30-inch row spacing, of all things. We’re averaging 91 pods per plant, which translates to a lot of bushels. It’s like counting beans on a Christmas tree!
Likewise on the Illinois side, we did have a couple outliers. but overall, the Illinois bean crop we’re sampling look beautiful. As we get farther west we’ll hit better soils and continue to see really good beans.
