Day 3. It’s a weird day for the western leg of the Pro Farmer Crop Tour. We don’t finish a state, but we finish our portion of Iowa. It might give us an idea of what to expect when Lane and the rest of the Eastern Scouts make their way through eastern and central Iowa up to Rochester to meet up with the western group.
The “measurables” are outstanding on the corn and soybean crops in Western Iowa. Corn yield estimates were a record in Crop Districts 7 (SW), CD 4 (WC) and CD 1 (NW) Iowa.
- District 1 knocked off the record yield from 2015 of 188.19 bu. per acre.
- District 4 beats the 201.1 from 2021
- Distrct 7 beat 2016 and its 191.87.
It’s the absolute best corn crop we’ve ever sampled in western Iowa. The best!
And it might be the worst crop we’ve ever sampled. The diseases in the western Iowa corn crop are real. Southern rust is the primary offender and it threatens to end the growing season for a chunk of acres before the crop reaches black layer.
It is a great crop we saw today... with great risk. I’ve not seen an area with more risk of losing bushels to disease than the western Iowa corn crop. I know... it sounds like hyperbole. I don’t think it is... there are a lot of bushels at risk.
It is a very similar story for soybeans. The pod counts might not be records in each district of western Iowa, but the snapshot we took of the bean crop in CDs 1, 4 and 7 in Iowa is impressive. It has pods and it has – in most cases – water to finish.
And it’s got disease. Many fields are showing signs of disease from the road and when scouts got into fields and looked under the canopy to figure out what is really happening, scouts often found dead plants or the signs of disease that could rob bushels later in the growing season. If it was September 10 with this disease pressure, I wouldn’t be worried. But it is August 20 and I think the bean crop in western Iowa is going to look a lot different on September 10 than it does today.
I’m pulling samples until noon on Thursday and then I’m punching the clock on the 2025 tour. Lane Akre is doing a great job with perspective from the eastern Corn Belt and Emily Carolan is managing and analyzing the data to provide us all with the best summaries of each day that we’ve ever had. I’m sure they’ll turn it into a great summary of the entire Tour.
And Michelle Rook has been great on the western leg of the Tour – she runs the nightly meetings and makes sure everyone gets the information they expect. She’s been great.
And then there is Brent Judish. I’ve said it before and it is absolutely the truth... Brent runs the western leg of the Tour and I’m along to give commentary on the crop and the numbers and to help Brent when I can. Honestly – couldn’t (and wouldn’t) do it without Brent. (Thanks Brother!)
And man, oh man, it was fun to have David Hula along this year. The perspective he provided each night and his enthusiasm to talk about what it takes to do a better job of growing corn is infectious! I really enjoyed getting to know David better.
And congratulations to Sherman Newlin from southern Illinois! Sherman is the 2025 inductee to the Pro Farmer Crop Tour Master Scout group. Sherman is a great educator on crops, the numbers from the tour and what the numbers might mean to the markets going forward. We’re lucky to have Sherman on Tour.
I’m going to miss the last half-day and the final night of the Pro Farmer Crop Tour for the first time in 33 years. (Somehow... I think this group will manage without me! GO CYCLONES!!!)