Day 2 is our shortest sampling day of the week. We usually look forward to it because we know we’ll finish earlier than the rest of the week, and by day two, first-time scouts have a day under their belt—things typically go more smoothly compared to Monday. However, the weather had other plans and gave us plenty of grief instead.
We woke up to thunderstorms moving through just as we were trying to leave the hotel. Heavy rains and lightning were part of the storm complex. Luckily, the leading edge of the front included the heaviest band, so we delayed leaving by about 30 minutes and were left with only lingering showers to finish out the morning. That plan actually worked out pretty well—except for the two inches of rain that fell in many of the counties we were sampling today. We were left with standing water in many fields and ankle-deep mud in others. But it wasn’t hot or windy, so we packed on rain gear and boots and got to work.
We started the day in Grand Island and worked our way southeast, ending in Nebraska City. Today’s counties extended from Grand Island east to the Missouri River and south to the Kansas border, encompassing crop districts 5, 6, 8, and 9. My particular route moved east out of Grand Island and turned south at York. I traveled about 20 miles below Interstate 80 and worked my way to Nebraska City.
Corn Samples
We took 9 irrigated corn samples that averaged just over 190 BPA. The range was a high of 213 and a low of 165. This was just a few percent less than the average we had on the same route last year and very close to the 3-year average. The corn crop was mostly in the beginning dent stage and was healthier than the crop we sampled last year, which had a heavy infestation of Southern Rust that 2024 was noted for.
As we moved south and east into Gage County, our sample yields quickly dropped as we transitioned into mostly dryland fields. This area also experienced very uneven rainfall patterns in July. Our 7 samples taken in Gage, Johnson, and Nemaha counties averaged 146 BPA, with a high of 181 and a low of 104. That is over 10 percent less yield than our samples taken in 2024 in the same counties.
Nebraska experienced extended periods in mid-July with nighttime lows that never dipped below 70 degrees. Corn in these areas generally benefits from nighttime lows in the upper 60s, and that just didn’t happen. This put stress on pollination, and we saw evidence of that in our ear samples and in some consistent kernel tip-back.
Overall, the irrigated corn in Nebraska will be an average crop, but the dryland areas are not going to keep up with last year’s crop or the 3-year average.
Soybean Samples
On the soybean side, we also pulled 16 samples with an average of 1,380 pods in a 3x3 square in the irrigated fields and 1,187 pods in the dryland fields. Our high sample was an irrigated field with 2,112 pods in a 3x3 square, and the low was a dryland field with 738 pods in a 3x3 square.
Overall, the pod counts in Nebraska are down over 9 percent from 2024 but down less than 1 percent from the 3-year average. I don’t think the soybean yields can quite match the 2024 crop, but with cooler weather in the forecast and the rain that happened today, they may be able to gain a little test weight and soybean size—potentially matching or slightly exceeding the 3-year average.
Tomorrow’s Plan
Tomorrow we move into western Iowa, scouting the counties mainly west of I-35 from the southern border north to Minnesota, ending the day in Spencer. Iowa and Minnesota are both expected to have excellent corn and soybean crops this year, so I expect to see the highest corn yield samples so far on this crop tour and the highest soybean sample counts too.