Two studs and a dud.
Yeah – I know – I said it too much. But it’s still the best way of describing samples pulled on day 3 of the Crop Tour. It seems that every field had a problem ear in the sample. And when stress was even more persistent on the corn crop, it turned into two duds and a stud for ears in the 3-ear sample.
Ear populations have been an issue each day of the tour – something scouts are watching very carefully. The trend was at least disturbed today with the Illinois ear count down just slightly from last year and ear counts in northwestern Iowa (IA-1) matching last year. Ear counts in west-central Iowa (IA-4) were down 3.47% from year-ago and ear counts in southwestern Iowa (IA-7) were down 2.29% from last year. Overall, ear populations are down in western Iowa, but not down as much as in Ohio, Indiana, South Dakota and Nebraska.
The problem is western Iowa is in grain length. IA-1 grain length was down 4.66% from 2025 but was down just 0.24% from the three-year average. IA-4 grain length was down 6.19% from last year but was down just 0.51% from the three-year average. IA-7 grain length was down 4.35% and was down 2.44% from the three-year average, but southwestern Iowa has seen some impressive crops the past three years.
IA-1 corn yield at 191.8 bu. per acre from the 2026 Tour is down 3.08% from year-ago but is up 3.3% from the three-year average. IA-4 yield is down 8.45% from last year but is down just 0.46% from the three-year average. IA-7 yield is down 2.28% from year-ago and is up 0.05% from the three-year average.
This year’s corn crop experienced stress that impacted grain length. Last year’s corn crop experienced diseases that robbed bushels from the biological yield projections we collected in the third week of August. We took the snapshot of the crop at the same time of the year, but this year’s snapshot isn’t blurred by the worst Southern Rust infestation in 40 years. If this year’s crop holds onto more of the bushels than last year’s did (which seems extremely likely), a record corn yield in Iowa is still a possibility. We just need to see if the eastern half of the state has the yield potential many producers says it does. We’ll find out tomorrow.
The western Iowa bean crop is good. Pods in a 3’X3’ square in IA-1 are up 0.55% from last year and are 6.61% above the three-year average. Pods in IA-4 are down 7.44% from last year’s but are up 1.89% from the three-year average. IA-7 has a pod count down just 0.32% from last year and 14% above the three-year average. That’s a good bean crop with a lot of potential in western Iowa.
And it has moisture to finish filling pods. Give it the right amount of rain and extend the pod-fill period by a few days and this bean crop in western Iowa could be a really good bean crop. (Really good!)
Disease pressure in the bean crop is less than it was a year-ago and most scouts didn’t mention disease as a concern for this year’s bean crop in western Iowa. I’ll hedge on that a bit – we saw brown stem rot in western Iowa and all the symptoms that create some uncertainty about the crop this year. Based on what I saw, the deep-green bean crop we saw today in western Iowa might look a lot different within just 10 days. Let’s keep an eye on it.
Final day of the 2026 Tour is next. The Eastern Leg of the Tour is going to reveal if Iowa’s corn yield can reach a record this year and the Western Leg will travel last year’s Tour yield champ in Minnesota. I’m looking forward to getting back to Rochester for the final meeting.