Day 3 of The 2014 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour

Presented by: J & M Manufacturing Co.

See Day #1′s Results

See Day #2’s Results

See Day #4’s Results

Our truck today is a bit Ohio heavy, as my driver is Logan County farmer Bill Bayliss. Bill has been a part of the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour for 15 years, and is even heralded as a “Master Scout” for his experience on the annual trek.

My route yesterday wasn’t all that impressive as the dry conditions and variability continued. I am told that today and tomorrow the only variability will be is a field 225 or 250 bushels to the acre. Should be an interesting day to say the least.

8:48 a.m.

Today’s initial stop is in Danvers, Illinois and we have a DuPont Pioneer Field Agronomist for this area following us for the first few stops. That was pretty helpful when discussing the tip-back issues we had the chance to see yesterday and noticed on this stop as well. You’ll also see some pollination challenges on one of the ears, but nothing too significant. This field’s yield estimate is 190. The soybeans, which got off to a dewey start, looked really green and even from the road and soil moisture was still alright. This field was planted in 30 inch rows, fairly common for this area.

9:27 a.m.

We are just east of Pekin, Illinois in Tazewell County and according to the agronomist along with us for this stop, things two counties south of us is doing considerably better. This field clocked in at 173. The other ear you see in the picture is a secondary ear that will make grain. It was not part of this sample. The agronomist said fields in her area will all have a 2 as the first digit. The soybeans were again planted in a 30 inch row, which we came to find out is common here due to planter weight capabilities in this area. This field average pod count for a 3 x 3 foot space is just over 1200 here and had a few 4 bean pods.

10:04 a.m.

This field, west of Peoria, has seen a good bit of moisture already with another rain approaching. One of our ears measured 9 inches long and we are told that will be close to the norm later today. This field clocks in at over 200 bushels, according to our calculations. Just over 1600 was our pod count for this field of 15 inch rows and a high pop that had pretty good nodulation and was heavily podded throughout the stalk.

10:29 a.m.

Storms are just to our west as we make a stop in Farmington, Illinois. This corn field was in hard dough to almost dent stage and the ears were nice and healthy.  We peg this field to come in with 212 bushels this fall. The beans were just as nice, with another 30 inch row situation. The population was on the lower side for 30 inch rows. Our count for pods in a 3 x 3 square is just below 1100.

 11:01 a.m.

Rain is falling at a pretty good clip now here in London Mills, Illinois, so this stop was a quick one as lightning is in the area as well. We found a farmer here that is planting 18 inch rows in this soybean field. That is a rarity on this tour, but every year you will see a handful of them. This field had an average of almost 1400 pods in a 3 foot square, so obviously this producer has found a formula that is working. The corn adjacent to the beans were dismal. The field was weedy and stalks were short and management of this field seemed to get away. Our yield guess is 93 bushels to the acre.

11:36 a.m.

This area, just north of Roseville, Illinois had just gotten a lot of rain, our guess was 1/2 inch in the last 30 minutes. We found a monster of a bean plant in our sample, but the other two plants pulled this average pod count to 825 per square yard. Tip back has taken some yield out of the corn here, but it didn’t look like it was much to look at regardless. Our guesstimate for this field is pegged at 139 bushels per acre. Not at all what we were thinking we would see this far into Illinois.

 12:06 p.m.

Now that is more like it. Both the bean and the corn field were the best of our route so far today. No disease pressure or insect pressure in either field and the numbers were impressive. We calculated a 218 bushel yield in this corn field near Galesburg, Illinois and our bean pod count was 1660 from the 20 inch row soybean field.

 12:53 p.m.

We are now in the part of Illinois that completely missed the morning rains, between Viola and Alpha. The cracks in the ground are not hard to  find, but these soybeans were still finding moisture thanks to a deep rot system. Our bean pod count was 1668 in a 3 foot square. The corn was so densely populated that you could barely get between the stalks. The ears may not look like they could yield much, but the pop gave us a number of 218 bushels to the acre, the second field in a row with that figure.

1:23 p.m.

Still very dry as we travel up route 67 just north of Preemption, Illlinois. Despite the dry conditions, these crops are holding their own. The drought stress show in the tip back on corn ears and quite a few 2 bean pods. Our yield check shows 210 for the corn and just over 1000 for the soybean pods.

Our Illinois averages for Day #3 of The Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour was 184 bushel per acre for corn and a pod count of 1292 in a 3 foot square. On to Iowa!

3:00 p.m.

We have made two stops in Iowa, one in Muscatine County and one in Johnson County. Even though it was sprinkling on us here the cracks in the dirt showed a need for more rain.

Our Iowa averages with these two stops are 166 bushels per acre for the corn and a pod count of 1578 in a 3 by 3 square of soybeans.

The final Illinois results for the entire Pro Farmer Crop Tour has corn at 196.96 bushels to the acre and soybean pod counts at 1299.17 per 3 x 3 foot square.