Midday Route Reports | Day 4
Preliminary Route Report with Brent Judisch, western Tour consultant
What counties have you sampled from?
- Minnesota: Martin (8), Watonwan (8), Faribolt (8), Blue Earth (8), Freeborn (8), Waseca (8)
Corn yield range:
- 140.9 bpa to 232.8 bpa
Corn yield average:
- 180.2 bpa
Soybean pod count range in 3’x3’ square:
- 650 pods to 2,456 pods
Soybean pod count average in 3’x3’ square:
- 1,275 pods
Please share a few comments from your route:
It’s dry everywhere we’ve been. Some fields are slightly dry. Some extremely dry, with large cracks in the ground. We’ve seen a lot of stress in corn, but samples have been better than what it looks. The corn crop should be able to hold on until harvest. Generally speaking, it’s extremely mature corn—almost full dent. Drier areas seeing some ears hanging down.
On the bean side, there has not been any visual obvious stress (but its only 11:00 a.m.). Beans are holding on extremely well—and there are rain chances the next 4 to 5 days. If rains fall, the crop should finish well. In Iowa we saw a lot of stress, but we really haven’t seen any of that today.
We haven’t seen any wind or hail damage or o disease on either crop. Corn definitely has some dry stress—it’s pretty brown up to the ear. But we’ve been mildly surprised on corn yields on our route considering its conditions and appearance.
Preliminary Route Report with Bruce Blythe, western Tour leader
What counties have you sampled from?
- Minnesota: Blue Earth (8) and Waseca (8)
Corn yield range:
- 166.6 bpa to 271.6 bpa
Corn yield average:
- 203.9 bpa
Soybean pod count range in 3’x3’ square:
- 856 pods to 1,300 pods
Soybean pod count average in 3’x3’ square:
- 1,160 pods
Please share a few comments from your route:
It’s dry up here. Showing up in the numbers. Some good corn yield projections and also some low ones. Plant health uncertain. Lower third to half of the plant stalk is brown. Kernel depth is a little shallow.
Bean pod counts have been average to a bit below average. Beans don’t appear stressed—they have solid stands and are nice and green—but pod counts have not been spectacular. Pods need to fill out—they’re on the flat side. We really need a few rains to finish off these crops.
We’re still seeing pretty clean crops. Just a little bit of weed pressure.
Preliminary Route Report with Brian Grete, eastern Tour leader
What counties have you sampled from?
- Iowa: Johnson (6), Iowa (6), Benton (6), Buchanan (3), Black Hawk (3) and Chickasaw (3)
Corn yield range:
- 113.2 bpa to 210.6 bpa
Corn yield average:
- 166.9 bpa
Soybean pod count range in 3’x3’ square:
- 648 pods to 1,354 pods
Soybean pod count average in 3’x3’ square:
- 1,047 pods
Please share a few comments from your route:
We’ve seen quite a bit of variability in corn and beans on our route through eastern and northeastern Iowa. Pockets of dryness rather than broad-based dryness. Some fields are dry but ok. Others are firing up to the ear. Corn has been all over the place on maturity, too. Some of it has been pushed by dryness. Some still has the potential to add yield. Ear counts were strong. Grain length was the issue on the poor fields.
Soybeans have all over the board on pod counts, too. No real disease pressure to speak of. We’ve seen some sudden death syndrome (SDS) west and north of Iowa City in a couple of fields.
Preliminary Route Report with Mark Bernard, eastern Tour consultant
What counties have you sampled from?
- Iowa: Floyd (2) and Mitchel (2)
- Minnesota: Mower (9), Dodge (9), Olmsted (9)
Corn yield range:
- Iowa: 150 bpa to 209 bpa
- Minnesota: 152 bpa to 191 boa
Corn yield average:
- Iowa: 175 bpa
- Minnesota: 167
Soybean pod count range in 3’x3’ square:
- Iowa: 508 pods to 1,240 pods
- Minnesota: 836 pods to 1,642 pods
Soybean pod count average in 3’x3’ square:
- Iowa: 825 pods
- Minnesota: 1,221
Please share a few comments from your route:
Bean crop we saw on our route in Iowa was suffering, as had the corn. Doesn’t look like we’ll pick up a lot of yield—regardless of whether we get rain. But there’s nowhere to go but backward if it doesn’t rain.
There’s an occasional good field, but most were not anything to get excited about. Average, at best.
Bean pod counts were better in Minnesota on three out of the four samples we’ve grabbed today. Whether they got rain at the right time to set pods or what—I’m not sure what the reason was for that. But again, there’s not a lot of room for improvement. It’ll be what you see is what you get, I’m afraid.
On corn, kernel rows and stands have been disappointing. Mid-to upper 20s on final stand or harvest population and a lot of ears with 14 kernel rows around just doesn’t cut it.
