From The Rows | Aug. 16, 2021 — Brian Grete (East)
Eastern Tour – Day 1
The 2021 Pro Farmer Crop Tour kicked off in Dublin, Ohio, (a suburb of Columbus), with scouts sampling fields along 11 designated routes to Noblesville, Indiana (a suburb of Indianapolis).
My route took me northeast out of Dublin up through crop district 5 and then west in northern Ohio crop districts 2 and 1. It rained on us through much of the morning. Areas of northern Ohio had some ponding in low areas after heavy overnight rains.
Corn yields ranged from 126.5 bu. to 235.9 bu. per acre, with an average yield of 183.5 bu. per acre. Ear counts were strong along my route, ranging from 91 to 121. It’s not uncommon for the range of ear counts to be far less in Ohio. The consistency and heavy ear counts I found on my route suggest the yield factory is there to produce a record yield.
Soybean pod counts in a 3’x3’ square along my route averaged 1091.5 pods, with a range from 544.5 to 1523.9. The beans were uniform, green and healthy. That’s not always the case in Ohio. Pod counts were more variable than corn yields and based on what my route saw, may not be consistent enough to produce the record yield USDA estimated earlier this month. But if the crop gets late-season rains to plump up the beans in pods, it will be a very strong Ohio soybean yield. After today’s rains, some of the areas may already have enough moisture to finish strong.
Final Day 1 observations
The Ohio corn and soybean crops didn’t look like they typically do. In fact, I commented several times today both looked more like what we traditionally see in Indiana, reflecting the favorable conditions through the growing season.
USDA pegged the Ohio corn yield at a record 193 bu. per acre in August. The average yield from 128 samples pulled from the state on the first day of the Pro Farmer Crop Tour was 185.1 bu. per acre. This year’s Tour ear counts were up 5.1% from last year and 5.5% from the three-year average. Grain length measured by Tour samples was also up 5.1% from last year and 6.1% from the three-year average. Historically back to 2001, the Crop Tour has measured the Ohio corn crop 3.6 bu. per acre too light. Adding the average miss to this year’s results would produce a yield of 188.7, still shy of USDA’s initial estimate.
The “gold standard” for the Ohio crop was 2018 when it yielded a record 187 bu. per acre. That year, the average Crop Tour yield from the state was 179.6 bu. per acre.
USDA pegged the Ohio corn yield at a record 58 bu. per acre in August, up 7.4% from last year. The average soybean pod count in a 3'x3' square in Ohio came in at 1195.4 pods, up 3.4% from last year on Crop Tour. Like corn, 2018 is the benchmark from which to measure Ohio’s soybean crop. That year, the state yielded 56 bu. per acre. Crop Tour pod counts averaged 1248.2 in a 3’x3’ square in 2018.
Results from Ohio showed many areas of the state received plentiful and timely rains through the growing season, giving crops a boost. More timely rains ahead of harvest could prove highly beneficial because there’s a lot of yield factory in fields.
