Preliminary Route Report with Chip Flory, western Tour leader
What counties (with state and district) have you sampled from?
MINNESOTA: Brow, Watonwan, Blue Earth, Faribault, Waseca counties
Corn yield range: 158 to 257 bu. per acre
Corn yield average: 198.7 bu. per acre
Soybean pod count range in 3’x3’ square: 856 to 1,235
Soybean pod count average in 3’x3’ square: 1,267.86
Please share a few comments from your route:
The crop in MN is more variable than what I expected. As we were making our way across the state. Grain length continues to be an issue and probably the primary driver of lacking yield. It is a little dry, though – even corn could benefit from a rain. Most of the crop is already dented, there have been some in the late dough stage, so the heat and heat and dryness has probably pushed the crop. I had lunch with a certified crop advisor in the area that has many years of experience on the Crop Tour, he said there is a big a difference between corn on corn and corn on beans.
On beans, we spent the first three days of the Tour and seeing nothing but a sea of grain, in Minnesota it’s a little bit different. There are yellow spots and drowned out spots in fields, with areas that haven’t had enough water to sustain the crop. There could be some diseases that are starting to develop in some of these bean fields.
Preliminary Route Report with Brent Judisch, western Tour consultant
What counties (with state and district) have you sampled from?
MINNESOTA - Martin, Watonwan, Blue Earth, Freeborn, Waseca counties
Corn yield range: 119 to 223 bu. per acre
Corn yield average: 194.3 bu. per acre
Soybean pod count range in 3’x3’ square: 816 to 1,474
Soybean pod count average in 3’x3’ square: 1,157
Please share a few (one to three) comments from your route:
Corn samples have been down 2% from 2025, down about 1% on ear count and 1% on ear length but pretty close kernels around. It’s a very healthy crop, there have been no noticeable diseases, we did have two anomaly stops – a field of corn that was planted in 15” corn row. The crop looks good; we just can’t get ear counts and ear lengths over the top. Heavy rains after planting are the likely culprits – and I think there have been too many hot nights during pollination to shave the top-end yield off. We’ve been rating the crop as strong all day long, there’s adequate moisture in the ground to help push the crop to the finish line. What we’re seeing is full dent consistently, which is a little farther along than what I had thought.
Soybean samples have been 6% less than our routed in 2025. The overall crop has been very clean as far as weeds. There is minimal disease and white mold. We think we have seen some Iron Chlorosis, mainly around hog buildings, where fertility is high, but every field has been standing well. No storm damage or really any issues to discuss, it just continues to underperform.