From The Rows | Aug. 18, 2021 — Mark Bernard (East)
Day three of the Pro Farmer Crop Tour had us deadheading again, this time south of Springfield IL an hour to get a look at the farthest south route in IL. We pulled samples in Montgomery, Macoupin, Greene, Scott and Pike counties.
The corn yields today continued a trend of slight disappointment on this route. The soybean yields continued to impress even though looking at them from the road, they wouldn’t win the beauty contest versus the route we were on yesterday. The samples from our route today were all from cropping district 6. Our high corn yield was 232 bu./acre high in Pike Co. IL. The low on our route was a zero bu./acre in Greene Co. There were plenty of drown out spots on our route from earlier season rains and we caught one of them. Our route average today on corn in IL was 166 bu./acre. Toss out the outlier and it becomes 187 bu./acre. Somewhat surprising when you consider our average yesterday through some of Illinois best farm ground was 180.
On the soybean side samples also showed the same general stability in pod counts as we saw yesterday. The high sample for our route was 2094 in Greene Co. with a low of 842 in Macoupin Co. An overall average was 1382 pods in the 3’x3’. This compares favorably with the 1305 we pulled yesterday and were impressed. This from the land of fences, rocks, cows and trees. Things that make you hmmm…
Disease pressure in both crops was generally light as was insect pressure. There were some corn fields showing some gray leaf spot, northern corn leaf blight and physoderma. Most weren’t serious. Fungicide applications have no doubt made an impact. Most of the disease was limited to below the ear.
On the soybean side, very little disease was noted. Some occasional SDS was apparent on a few stops. Not enough to be a problem but still there. Japanese beetles were occasional guests in the fields but nothing like they were 10 to 15 years ago. No soybean aphids, lots of syrphid flies again today.
Like last year, rainfall was a recurring theme on much of this year’s Tour. Today was no exception. Much of the corn sampled today should finish without it although there were a few later planted fields today that will definitely need rain to realize their potential. Soybeans have much the same dynamic only with more moving parts. A lot of the smaller pods have been hanging on for dear life and with no rain, their number could be up sooner or later.
Our route today was a long one and we were running behind on the tail end so needed to drop off sampling and head back in for the nightly meeting. The hotel address was plugged into the map program and away we went. When we arrived at the address, the hotel said it was the Hyatt. The address in the book was for the Marriott. This was indeed the same location from two years ago only the name was wrong!
Being late getting in, I frantically looked around for anyone involved in Crop Tour. No dice. Made a phone call to Brian and no, it was supposed to be the Marriott not the Hyatt. We must be at the wrong address. Suddenly looked up and saw Steve Matthews, one of the long-time scouts walking toward me. He told me yes, they’d changed the sign on the outside of the hotel over to the Hyatt less than two hours before we arrived. Whew! Problem solved.
Time to sign off and get some sleep as we finish the final leg of this year’s Pro Farmer Crop Tour. See you tomorrow night.
