Day 1 of the 2025 Pro Farmer Crop Tour is in the books.This morning started out warm and wet and got really warm as the day went on.Our 10 routes led us today from Sioux Falls SD to Grand Island NE.Most of the morning was spent in the 20 most Southeast Counties of South Dakota.As we finish South Dakota we move into the Northeast area of Nebraska and work our way to Grand Island.In South Dakota we scouted crop districts 5, 6, and 9. The routes that went West of Sioux Falls in crop district 6 towards Mitchell saw very good corn and soybean samples as they moved west. My 6 soybean samples in South Dakota averaged 1168 pods in a 3x3 square with a high of 1320 and a low of 910.This estimate was 143 more pods than we had in the 2024 Crop Tour.The soybean crop was very clean as far as weed control and the maturity was well into tothe pod fill stage and we didn’t find any plants with flowers on them. We sampled all morning in the mud as they had measurable rain overnight and into the morning just ahead of our sampling.
We also took 6 corn samples in Districts 5, 6, and 9.Our average came in at 172 bpa, which is 16 bpa higher than our 2024 estimate.Our high yield was 199 bpa and our low was 144 bpa.The lowest yield sample was in a field that had a 20% stand reduction because of Green Snap from a storm that happened about 10 days ago.Overall the corn crop was very healthy and was pretty disease free.The soybean crop and corn crop both appeared to have enough moisture to get them to maturity.
As we moved into Nebraska we sampled in crop districtas 3 and 6.Our route started at York, and passed thru Norfolk, West thru Albion, South to Central City and then into Grand Island.We took 14 samples along our route, 6 were irrigated and 8 were dry land. Our corn samples averaged 171 bpa, with a high of 232 and a low of 137. The dry land corn samples were good for this area of Nebraska as they have had adequate rainfall this whole growing season.The corners on the irrigated fields were even still green and many irrigators had either not run at all or had only run a couple of times all season.
Our 14 Soybean samples averaged 1421 pods in a 3x3 square, with a high of 2272 pods, and a low of 702 pods.This average was 190 more pods than we had on the same route in 2024. Soil moisture was adequate in both the irrigated and dryland fields as we sampled in the mud just as we had all morning in South Dakota.We only saw one field of Sudden Death on our 20 stops today which was less than we had expected.
Tomorrow we move into Southeast Nebraska heading East out of Grand Island and ending the day in Nebraska City.The morning samples will be mostly irrigated, but the afternoon will be mostly dry land.It will be interesting to see how the dry land are looking as this area has had pretty good rainfall thru most of the growing season.