Day 1 of the 2026 Pro Farmer Crop Tour is in the books.This morning started out cool and wet and was a really comfortable day.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. Wow what a difference a year makes. My route this morning was entirely spent in District 9 in the counties of Lincoln, Turner, and Hutchinson. Dry weather has really impacted the corn crop in District 9 in 2026.
This year’s samples in District 9 had a Crop Tour average yield of 149.09 BPA. That’s considerably lower than the 2025 Crop Tour average of 174.18 BPA. Ear counts were down 5.91% from last year and Ear Grain length was down a whopping 13.45% from 2025. We had a farmer stop and talk to us as we finished sampling his field and he commented that they had been extremely dry during the Months of June and July.July is especially important for corn pollination and kernel development and the dry weather they encountered was very evident in the corn yield potential. On the positive side there was very low disease pressure this year so they may be able to hold onto the yield potential we observed today.
On the soybean side the 2026 crop has more potential than the corn crop. This area has received a couple of rains since the first of August. The 2026 soybean crop totaled 945.98 pods in a 3x3 square.That is down 20% from 2025 but the recent rains have helped with the soil moisture and August rains have the potential to produce a better soybean size so weather may contribute to adding a few bushels to the soybean crop.As is the case in the corn crop there was very little disease currently in the soybean crop.
As we moved into Nebraska, we sampled in crop districts 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, 8 were irrigated and 6 were dry land. Our dryland corn samples averaged 171 bpa, with a high of 188 and a low of 155. The dry land corn samples were down a little from 2025 for this area of Nebraska as they have had a little less rainfall this growing season. Our 8 irrigated corn samples averaged 181 bpa, with a high of 229 and a low of 160. As was the case in South Dakota the corn looked very healthy and very little disease was evident.
Our 14 Soybean samples averaged 1324 pods in a 3x3 square, with a high of 2659 pods, and a low of 862 pods.This average was down just a little from the 1421 pods we sampled in 2025. Soil moisture was adequate in both the irrigated and dryland fields so the soybean crop should be set up for a good finish.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 area is looking as this area has had spotty rainfall in some areas and decent rainfall in others.