From The Rows | Aug. 22, 2022 — Brian Grete (East)
Eastern Tour – Day 1
The 2022 Pro Farmer Crop Tour kicked off in Dublin, Ohio, (a suburb of Columbus), with scouts sampling fields along 11 designated routes to Noblesville, Indiana (a suburb of Indianapolis).
My route took me southwest out of Dublin through crop districts 5, 4 and 7. It rained over the weekend, so fields along our route were muddy.
Corn yields ranged from 112 bu. to 201 bu. per acre, with an average yield of 166 bu. per acre. Ear counts were fairly consistent along my route, ranging from 94 to 109. Fields on the lower end of that range had skips in rows, the result of some of the planting struggles last spring due to wetness. But grain length was more of an issue than ear counts along our route. There was a lot of variability in grain length in the three ears we pulled from many of the fields.
Soybean pod counts in a 3’x3’ square along my route averaged 1359.7 pods, with a range from 650.8 to 2534. The beans were relatively uniform, green and healthy. That’s not always the case in Ohio. While there was some variability in pod counts along my route, it wasn’t as great as with corn. We found a couple fields along my route that were flowering and could still add pods. After the recent rains, some of the areas should have enough moisture to finish strong.
The best samples of corn and soybeans we pulled today were near the Indiana border and the variability wasn’t as high as our route traveled further west through Ohio.
Final Day 1 observations
Of the two crops, I was more impressed with soybeans than corn. There was too much variability in the corn crop from what I saw to challenge last year’s record yield.
USDA pegged the Ohio corn yield at 190 bu. per acre in August, down 3 bu. (1.6%) from last year’s record. The average yield from 130 samples pulled from the state on the first day of the Pro Farmer Crop Tour was 174.2 bu. per acre. This year’s Tour ear counts were down 0.5% from last year but up 4.8% from the three-year average. Grain length measured by Tour samples was down 5.1% from last year and down 0.7% from the three-year average. Historically back to 2001, the Crop Tour has measured the Ohio corn crop 3.8 bu. per acre too light. Adding the average miss to this year’s results would produce a yield of 178 bu. per acre. The state’s corn crop will be bigger than that but likely not as big as USDA estimated.
USDA pegged the Ohio soybean yield at a record 57 bu. per acre in August, up 0.5 bu. (0.9%) from last year. The average soybean pod count in a 3'x3' square in Ohio came in at 1131.6 pods, down 5.3% from last year on Crop Tour.
Results from Ohio showed some areas of the state suffered a little after a wet spring and planting delays, though that also provided plentiful moisture through summer. Recent rains give crops the moisture they need to finish strong. But this year’s corn crop isn’t consistent enough to top last year. Soybeans could still be a record crop.
Scouts will sample routes from Noblesville, Indiana to Bloomington, Illinois on Day 2 of Crop Tour.
