Preliminary Route Report with Lane Akre, eastern Tour leader
What counties (with state and district) have you sampled from?
ILLINOIS – La Salle, Putnam, Marshall, Bureau, Stark, Knox, Henry, Mercer, Rock Island counties
Corn yield range:
136 to 213 bu. per acre
Corn yield average:
173.9 bu. per acre
Soybean pod count range in 3’x3’ square:
846 to 1,498
Soybean pod count average in 3’x3’ square:
1,154.2
Please share a few (one to three) comments from your route:
The corn crop in Illinois is pretty underwhelming. It has been more consistent from a yield and maturity perspective, but the yields are consistently low, due to low populations and big ears and high populations and small ears, which leads to about the same yield. There is obvious nitrogen deficiency across the corn due to persistent rains throughout the growing season, and that hasn’t helped. Most of the crop is dented or has started to dent. Disease pressure was ramped up today, we saw a couple fields with rust, but still not tar spot. We did see some northern leaf blight and bacterial leaf blight. There was also some down corn in western Illinois – it wasn’t terribly widespread, but there were both broken and goosenecked stalks.
There was more sudden death in the soybean crop than we’ve been seeing, and the crop is further along what we’ve seen in prior days and seems to have a little bit more potential to fill out upper pods. There was a field of brown stem rot and we noticed some white mold from the truck but didn’t sample that particular field. Most fields were clean; a couple had some weed pressure but looked average to better-than average.
Preliminary Route Report with Kyle Wendland, eastern Tour consultant
What counties (with state and district) have you sampled from?
ILLINOIS: Marshall, Peoria, Stark, Henry, Whiteside counties
IOWA: Clinton, Jackson, Jones, Cedar counties
Corn yield range:
IL – 132 to 211 bu. per acre
IA – 162 to 264 bu. per acre
Corn yield average:
IL – 188.75 bu. per acre
IA – 203.3 bu. per acre
Soybean pod count range in 3’x3’ square:
IL – 816 to 2,160 IA – 757 to 1,440
Soybean pod count average in 3’x3’ square:
IL – 1,585.25
IA – 1,034
Please share a few comments from your route:
The corn looks fairly consistent today, but we have seen some wind damage northwest of Clinton. Not real severe, but there were three or four stalks snapped off here and there. Maturity seems to have increased – every one of our samples today has started the dent phase. We’re seeing the same diseases we’ve been seeing – gray leaf spot and northern leaf blight. Overall grain length today compared to past years has been shorter.
As wet as it’s been, it’s been a breeding ground for disease in soybeans. We’ve discovered this area had the sixth wettest June on record. There’s white mold and sudden death that has affected a lot of the soybeans we’ve sampled. Everything is done setting blooms – there are still some very small pods that could possibly fill out. The ground is drier than yesterday, but mud is still sticking to our boots, so there’s plenty of moisture to get the crop to the finish line. Our last sample had a lot of foxtail, but there haven’t been any widespread weed or insect issues.