Day 3 of Crop Tour is now behind us. We crossed into Iowa first thing in the morning and covered the Iowa counties west of I-35 from Missouri north to the Minnesota border, ending the day in Spencer. This is our longest distance traveled day of the week, so scouts get an early start and have to hustle to complete their routes and arrive in Spencer in time for the nightly meeting.
Today was a much better day than yesterday weather-wise. There were a few light showers, but nothing like we encountered yesterday, and temperatures were in the lower 70s.
Corn Samples
Our route started in Missouri Valley north of Omaha and covered Crop Districts 4 and 1. Our 9 corn samples in District 4 averaged 190.84 BPA, with a high of 222 and a low of 169. This is 17 BPA less than our 2024 average of 207 BPA. Our 9 corn samples in District 1 averaged 199.5 BPA, with a high of 247 and a low of 163. This is right at our 2024 average of 197.89 BPA.
The corn crop this year is very clean with very little disease evident, compared to last year when Southern Rust was present in almost every field we sampled. The crop has adequate soil moisture to work with, so I expect it to finish strong. Even though we got samples averaging 197 BPA, we are a little disappointed as USDA has Iowa penciled in at 216 BPA. This is a very good corn crop we sampled today, but it just didn’t add up to the expectations we had as we moved into Iowa this morning.
Maturity-wise, this crop is moving along normally for the third week in August, and I don’t expect frost concerns to develop as we move into September.
Soybean Samples
Our soybean route also consisted of 9 samples pulled in District 4. We averaged 1,405 pods in a 3x3 square, with a high of 1,977 and a low of 1,305. This was just slightly more than our 2024 average of 1,376. The 9 samples we pulled in District 1 averaged 1,564 pods in a 3x3 square, with a high of 1,671 and a low of 859.
As we drove north today, we didn’t notice any soybean diseases in any of the 18 samples we pulled. We did notice a few flowers at the top of the plant in a field or two, but we don’t expect those to develop into actual pods this late with Labor Day just around the corner.
Last year, the soybean crop in this area ran out of moisture in the end, and we ended up with final yields that were very good but maybe left a bushel or two on the table. This area received rain yesterday, and some counties got rain again today. We rate the soil moisture in every soybean field we sample from 1 to 6—a 1 rating is severe drought with cracks in the ground, and a 6 is saturated. We rated every sample today as a 5, which means there is adequate surface moisture for the crop to utilize. This moisture should be enough to finish this soybean crop stronger than last year.
Tomorrow’s Plan
Tomorrow is our 4th and final day of the 2026 Crop Tour. We leave Spencer and head north and northeast, working our 10 routes toward Rochester. We fought some rough weather and mud yesterday in Nebraska, but the temperatures have been great all week, and tomorrow looks to be a sunny day with highs in the upper 70s. We expect to see some really good yields tomorrow in Minnesota, as they’ve had nice rains most of the summer and haven’t experienced as much of the high July temperatures that most of the rest of the Corn Belt has had.