Day 2 recap: Crop Tour finds both Indiana and Nebraska lagging last year’s corn yields, pod counts

As was the case with Ohio, scouts showed Indiana’s corn yield falling relative to last year’s Crop Tour, while USDA in last week’s Crop Production Report projected a higher yield at a record 206 bushels per acre, up 1% from 2025. We don’t compare Crop Tour yields directly to USDA, but differences in the direction of travel are noteworthy. The Tour pegged Indiana’s yield at 183.54, down 5.3% from 193.82 a year ago and 2.1% below the three-year average (see items below).

Indiana’s soybean pod count was down 4.2% from a year ago, while USDA expects the state’s average yield to rise 4.2% to 62 bushels per acre this year.

(ProFarmer)

The Tour found an average Nebraska corn yield of 163.61, down 8.9% from 179.50 bushels per acre last year and 5.6% below the three-year Tour average of 173.32. USDA estimated Nebraska’s average corn yield at 183 bushels per acre, down 5.7% from 194 bushels last year.

Scouts reported blank stalks throughout the day and the data showed an ear count of 86.22, down 5.2% from 90.97 last year and 5.2% below the three-year Tour average.

(ProFarmer)

Scouts found Nebraska soybean pods in a 3’X3’ square averaged 1,219.62, down 9.5% from last year, but just 0.6% below the three-year average. USDA projected Nebraska soybeans to produce an average yield of 57 bushels per acre, a 12.2% drop from 65.5 bushels last year.

(ProFarmer)

Indiana’s corn yield is estimated at 183.54 bushels per acre, down 5.3% from 193.82 last year and 2.1% from the three-year average of 187.42. USDA last week estimated Indiana’s average corn yield at a record 206 bushels per acre, up 1% from 204 bushels in 2025.

Grain length at 6.78 inches was down 3.9% from last year and 1.5% below the three-year average, while ear count at 101.59 came in 1.5% below 2025 and 0.8% below the three-year average.

(ProFarmer)

Soybean pods in a 3’X3’ square averaged 1,318.64 this year, down 4.2% from 2025 and 3.4% below the three-year average. USDA forecast Indiana’s soybean yield at 62 bushels per acre this year, up 4.2% from 59.5 bushels last year.

Preliminary Route Report with Chip Flory, western Tour leader

What counties (with state and district) have you sampled from?
Nebraska: Fillmore, Saline, Gage, Lancaster Counties

Corn yield range:
213, 201, 185, 148, 145, 176 bu. per acre

Corn yield average:
178.02 bu. per acre

Soybean pod count range in 3’x3’ square:
719 to 1968

Soybean pod count average in 3’x3’ square:
1,135.8

Please share a few comments from your route:

There’s some tipback and ear population problems. Not losing a lot from disease. The biggest issue is there are missing stalks and ears. Most of the crop is at the early dent stage, which is not unusual, but a little further along than we’d like to see with the heat pushing it along. On the disease front – all of the usual suspects, but nothing at a level that’s raising any alarms. We went through an area with fresh hail from last night, just east Dorchester, but nothing alarming.

One field with Brown stem rot, seed development looks good. We’re generally unimpressed with the pod counts. Our pod counts have been really, really average for a bean crop so far and I don’t have an answer why right now. The crop is moving along nicely, we did see one field with a few blooms left at the top. There certainly is no shortage of moisture at this very moment.

Preliminary Route Report with Brent Judisch, western Tour consultant

What counties (with state and district) have you sampled from?
Nebraska: Hamilton, York, Saline, Fillmore – all irrigated

Corn yield range:
165.11 to 213.72 bu. per acre

Corn yield average:
193.54 bu. acre.

Soybean pod count range in 3’x3’ square:
912 to 2112.8

Soybean pod count average in 3’x3’ square:
1,339.11

Please share a few (one to three) comments from your route:

Wow - there’s been a lot of rain in Nebraska this morning. In my 14 years on this leg of the Crop Tour, I’d bet today’s rain exceeds the combined total of all previous years.

This is an average irrigated corn crop. The reason is because there is a lot of tipback relating to the fact that the western Corn Belt had a warm July and high overnight temps. We spoke with a farmer along the path, who thinks there were no overnight lows below 70 for a straight week in July. This is my fourteenth Tour – this is the least amount of wind/hail in all 14 years. There has been some hail damage and leaves that have been affected, but nothing that has dinged yield. The crop we’ve tested is about 20% dented, which is right on track. There is very little disease, some northern leaf blight and some tar spot. Winds have been lighter this year, and have kept diseases from creeping in. We haven’t seen many insects; we had only one sample that had a worm in it.

The bean crop has been solid. There has been some minor signs of disease. There have been two fields that had disease on the stem, but it hasn’t affected standability. We haven’t seen any white mold or sudden death. There has been some insect damage – just chewing on the leaves. There have been reports of western bean cutworm recently, but we have not come across any. The crop is right on par with maturity – we haven’t seen any flowers; everything is podding consistently. Today’s rain will definitely give the bean crop a boost in this area.

Preliminary Route Report with Lane Akre, eastern Tour leader

What counties (with state and district) have you sampled from?

Indiana: Hancock, Shelby, Johnson, Putnam

Corn yield range:
68 to 246 bu. per acre

Corn yield average:
162 bu. per acre

Soybean pod count range in 3’x3’ square:
670.8 to 2,108

Soybean pod count average in 3’x3’ square:
1,372

Please share a few (one to three) comments from your route:

The crop is far more mature than we thought and there’s a lot more moisture. We’re seeing more disease today than yesterday, largely because the crops are farther along. Northern Leaf Blight is the main disease we’ve come across, but nothing else really. Some of the crop is starting to dent, but there are a lot of pollination issues. In a third of our samples, a third of the ears were affected. One field had light weed pressure and there was one field that had some goosenecked corn. The storm damage on our route was fairly localized. We did see some flooded crops – with the entire corn plant under water near Eugene, Indiana.

Overall, the bean crop is better than I would have thought, the pod counts have been good. Maturity wise- pods are filling and the crops are done flowering. We did find more sudden death the further west we went. Japanese beetles were present in some fields, which had been nibbling on some leaves. There’s plenty of moisture to round out the bean crop out.

Preliminary Route Report with Kyle Wendlund, eastern Tour consultant

What counties (with state and district) have you sampled from?

Indiana: Hamilton, Boone, Hendricks, Parke, Vermillion counties Illinois: Edgar, Coles, Douglas, Moultrie, Piatt, Macon, Dewitte counties

Corn yield range:
IN: 152.64 to 213.3 bu. per acre
IL: 137.38 to 226.3 bu. per acre

Corn yield average:
IN: 182.01 bu. per acre
IL: 177.65 bu. per acre

Soybean pod count range in 3’x3’ square:
IN: 829 to 2268
IL: 676.08 to 1,752.96

Soybean pod count average in 3’x3’ square:
IN: 1,533.35
IL: 1,260.35

Please share a few comments from your route:

The corn crop is pretty good, still seeing northern leaf blight along with very noticeable wind and hail damage, with the worst of it lasting around 5 miles around the Arthur, IL area. One field of corn that had hail damage was being chopped for silage. The crop was very mature overall — the really low yielding sample was immature — but generally the crop was mostly dented. One field of corn that had some of the worst corn smut I’ve ever seen. There was an ear with smut every 10 feet in one field. It was definitely a lot drier as we moved south and west. Every stop we still had mud on our boots, but it wasn’t standing water or two inches of mud like we had yesterday.

Beans were pretty far along maturity wise and there has been very little disease. There was a little sudden in a few fields around Paris and Kansas, IL. The bean crop has adequate moisture, but not a bit dry. Beans were done flowering and podding nicely. We didn’t come across any insects to speak of.

Will Nebraska outperform diminished expectations? Does Indiana have what it takes to help the eastern Corn Belt make up for drought-stressed western Corn Belt crops? The Pro Farmer Live Stream will resume at 7:55 p.m. CT just ahead of the release of official Indiana and Nebraska results.

Tour scout Louise Carduner shared photos of her stops along the southern route in Nebraska today, noting the corn looked good in Adams County.

The sampling process for the Pro Farmer Crop Tour is no secret. You can use it to sample your own fields. Here’s how it’s done:

Corn

In each corn field, walk past the end rows and then take 25 paces into the field:

• At the 35th pace, lay out a 30’ plot and count all the ears that will make grain on two 30" rows.
• From one of those rows, pull the fifth, eighth and 11th ears. This ensures a consistently random sampling process.
• Measure the length of grain (in inches, rounded to the nearest ¼”) on each ear.
• Count the number of kernel rows around each ear.
• Record the row width in the field.
• To calculate the estimated yield, take the average number of ears in the two 30" rows TIMES the average length of grain per ear TIMES the average number of kernel rows around. DIVIDE the total by row width.

Example: (50 ears x 6.5’ x 16.7 kernel rows) / 30’ rows = 180.9.

This example gives you an estimated yield at that spot in the field of 180.9 bu. per acre.

Soybeans

In each soybean field, pick a representative spot:

• Measure a 3’ section in one row and count all the plants in that plot. Randomly select three plants. Count all the pods on those three plants and calculate the average number of pods per plant.
• Multiply the average number of pods per plant by the number of plants in the 3’ plot. Multiply that number by 36, and divide by row width.

Example: (14 plants x 32 pods/plant x 36)/15” rows = 1,075.2 pods in a 3’x3’ square

Compare your results to what we find on Tour and send your finding to editors@profarmer.com.

Western leg Tour scout Brent Judisch says it’s been hard to avoid tip back in Nebraska irrigated-corn samples:

Agronomist Missy Bauer of B&M Consulting told the Pro Farmer Livestream that it will be difficult for crops in the eastern Corn Belt to escape damage from extremely heavy rains. “We had a lot of concerns in areas that have been getting rains since June,” often five to six inches at a time, she said, noting local extremes.

While rain makes grain is a popular saying, it’s possible to have too much of a good thing. “I think, for the most part, any time soils are saturated it hurts microbial life,” Bauer said. As a result of this summer’s rains, there will be many fields with several wet spots in them that will be larger than is usually the case. It will show up on combine yield monitors this fall, she said, noting that when a producer hits a spot that’s zero yield it takes a while to get that average back up.

Bauer said Illinois is also likely to show significant wet spots. The state has also seen big rains and that may leave large pockets dealing with nitrogen problems, she said, particularly if producers didn’t follow up fall applications with in-season and rescue treatments. Scouts may see “full fields short of nitrogen,” she said.

December corn turned lower Tuesday morning after booking back-to-back gains and hitting a three-week high overnight. Disappointing Pro Farmer corn yield estimates in South Dakota and, particularly, Ohio may have helped provide further support overnight. December was off 1 cent at $4.88 1/2.

November soybeans remained 7 cents higher at $12.23 after trading at its highest since July 27. Continued buying by China, friendly crush data and continued gains for crude oil and diesel futures, which underpin biofuel demand, also provided support after soybean pod counts in Ohio and South Dakota on the Crop Tour showed significant declines from last year.

Pro Farmer Economist Lane Akre, who is leading the eastern leg of the Tour, says corn yields picked up as scouts moved west across Indiana after a disappointing start.

Western leg Tour leader Chip Flory notes scouts have found some pollination issues in Nebraska, including in irrigated corn. The crop may look good from the road, but some samples have shown shotgun pollination, with kernels on two-thirds of the cob at most, he said on AgriTalk. It’s likely a reflection of heat stress during pollination. “You can overcome dry with irrigation, but you can’t overcome heat,” Flory says.

Soybean pod counts in Nebraska have proven variable. August rains could still benefit the soybean crop significantly, he said.

Pro Farmer Economist Lane Akre, who is leading the eastern leg of the Tour, is finding the corn crop much further along than he had anticipated, with some ears denting. But early moisture may have caused emergence issues, he said, noting that ear counts are down and that yields found so far have disappointed.

Soybeans are looking a lot better than corn so far, he said. Short-stature beans remain a feature and crop looks inconsistent with wide variability but still has a lot of potential, Akre told AgriTalk.

Akre’s crew has seen some damage from recent storms, but hardest hit areas were largely to the south. Signs of disease pressure have picked up, primarily Northern Leaf Blight, along with signs of pollination issues which may be the result of heat in June or rains at the wrong time, he said.

Farm Journal’s Tyne Morgan shares an on the ground look at one of her stops in Indiana, highlighting that corn yields have improved as they move north.

Karen Braun and other scouts have noted much wetter conditions in Nebraska today compared to those in South Dakota. Standing water has been seen in multiple fields.

Thunderstorms may hinder scouts in Nebraska this morning.

Corn and soybean futures rose overnight and were firmer in early trade Tuesday morning. Traders are characterizing first-day Crop Tour results from Ohio and South Dakota as disappointing. Other factors are also seen providing support. China continues to buy U.S. soybeans, while Monday crush data showed soybean oil stocks at a nine-month low. Strong soyoil and meal demand have powered the complex.

As of around 8:45 a.m. CDT, December corn was up 2 cents, November soybeans were up 13 1/2 cents, September soft red winter wheat fell 2 cents, September hard red winter wheat rose 1/2 cent and September spring wheat added 6 cents.

Scouts on the eastern leg of the Crop Tour are wading into recently inundated fields across Indiana and Illinois on Tuesday, getting a first-hand look at the damage caused by the past week’s high winds, relentless rounds of rains and, in some areas, severe flooding. Meanwhile, Pro Farmer crop consultant Michael Cordonnier on Monday cut his U.S. corn yield estimate by one bushel to 180.0 bushels per acre as a result of storm damage and trimmed his soybean estimate by 0.5 bushels per acre. Cordonnier said the weather last week was a “double-edged sword,” with needed rainfall in much of the drier areas of the western and northwestern Corn Belt, which still need more rain. The severe storms that hammered areas from Iowa, through Illinois and on into Indiana and Ohio leave those areas needing dry weather, which Cordonnier said is ironic given that it’s mid-August.

Meanwhile, soybeans impacted by standing water and saturated soils are going to have a reduced yield potential due to increased disease pressure, potentially moldy seed, and even plant death, Cordonnier said. “We will not know the complete extent of the damage until the crop is harvested,” he noted. At the same time, previously dry areas in the western Corn Belt received some much-needed rain this past week, he said. “Even in the eastern Corn Belt, if the rainfall was not excessive, several inches of rain in mid-August is beneficial for yields. So, the question is, does the good outweigh the bad, or vice versa.” he wrote. Cordonnier cut his soybean yield estimate to 51.5 bushels per acre with a neutral bias. USDA last week in its August Crop Production Report put the average U.S. corn yield at 180.7 bushels per acre and soybeans at 52.7 bushels per acre.

Zaner Ag Hedge’s Ted Seifried notes South Dakota pod counts are down sharply after having ran high in recent years, but it’s August weather that seals the deal.

The crop tour found an average corn yield potential of 149.09 bushels per acre in South Dakota, down 14.4% from 174.18 bpa on the 2025 Tour and down 8.4% from the three-year average of 162.7 bpa. Soybean pod counts in a 3’X3' square averaged 945.98, down more than 20% from 2025 and 12.1% below the three-year average. South Dakota produced record crops last year but has faced significant drought and heat stress in 2026.

Day 1 Crop Tour Results: South Dakota

Turning to the east, the tour found average corn yield potential of 180.18 bpa, down 3% from 185.69 bpa in 2025 and 2.2% below the three-year average of 184.31 bpa. Pod counts averaged 1,186.3, down 7% from 1,287.28 in 2025 and down 4.7% from the three-year average of 1,256.71.

Day 1 Crop Tour Results: Ohio