Pro Farmer Crop Tour

Results are in for the final night of the 2019 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour. Scouts estimated the highly anticipated Iowa corn yield at 182.83 bpa, down 2.9 percent from last year. Soybeans had 1106 pods in a 3×3’ square, off 8.4%. Minnesota crop districts 5, 7, 8, and 9 averaged 170.37 bpa with 965.31 pods in a 3×3’ square.

The final day of the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour takes scouts on the eastern leg from Iowa City, Iowa to Rochester, MN.

Stop 9 – Marshall County, IA

Corn: 227.8 bpa estimated yield

Soybeans: 907.2 pods in a 3×3’ square

Stop 8 – Marshall County, IA

Corn: 224 bpa

Soybeans: 1814.4 pods in a 3×3’ square

Stop 7 – Tama County, IA

Corn: 159.65 bpa

Soybeans: 954.84 pods in a 3×3’ square

Stop 6 – Poweshiek County, IA

Corn: 137.9 bpa

Soybeans: 1497.6 pods in a 3×3’ square

Stop 5 – Poweshiek County, IA

Corn: 191.2 bpa

Soybeans: 1601.28 pods in a 3×3’ foot square

Stop 3 – Keokuk County, IA

Corn: 239.8 bpa.… Continue reading

The U.S. Agriculture Department told Reuters it had pulled all staff from Pro Farmer Crop Tour after an employee received a threatening phone call from an upset farmer. The Crop Tour started on Monday and will wrap up later in the week.

At Profarmer.com they had this to say:

We are sad to report a USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) employee received a phone threat while on the Pro Farmer Crop Tour from someone not involved with the tour. As a precaution, USDA immediately pulled all their staff out of the event. Federal Protective Services are investigating the incident.

We are taking the threat very seriously and the safety of all those involved in Tour is our top priority. As a precaution, we are taking steps to secure the remaining location venues, adding security personal at the live events as well as asking staff and crop tour scouts to remain aware and report any concerns immediately. … Continue reading

Day three of the 2019 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour saw scouts up and running as their transversing Illinois and part of Iowa. Stay tuned as the updates roll in throughout the day from Ohio Ag Net’s Joel Penhorwood, thanks to AgXplore, Tomorrow’s Science for Today’s Yield.

Stop 10 – Cedar County, IA

Corn: Less than impressed with 156 bpa on this field. Health isn’t too bad, but will only go down from here.

Soybeans: A great pod count on this final stand for our leg. Consistently good beans on the last several stops.

Stop 9 – Cedar County, IA

Corn: The best corn we have seen so far. Dent stage with deep kernel size so the yield might not be accurately reflected in the rough yield estimate of 193 bpa.

Soybeans: A great field of beans at 1,480 pods in a 3×3’ square, the second highest of the day.… Continue reading

Update:

Final Indiana numbers are in from the eastern leg of the 2019 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour. Indiana’s average estimated corn yield was 161.46 bushels per acre, down 11 percent from last year. Soybeans numbered 923.94 pods in a 3×3 foot square, off 29 percent year over year.

Day two of the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour sees Ohio Ag Net’s Joel Penhorwood leaving Noblesville, IN and heading north before his particular route takes their vehicle west. They’ll end the day in mid-Illinois, recapping the day by getting final results from Indiana. Keep in mind the updates below are just from one route’s stops and may not necessarily be representative of the entire tour’s findings. Check back here at the end of Tuesday for full results.

Stop 16 – Livingston County, IL

Corn: Milk stage corn with a lot of potential, if things go right. Quite a bit of variability.… Continue reading

Updated:

Final results from Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour Ohio leg came in at an estimated 154.35 bushels per acre of corn. Soybeans totaled 764.01 pods in a 3×3’ square in the Buckeye State.

On the western leg, South Dakota corn yields averaged 154.08 bpa for corn and 832.85 soybean pods in a 3×3’ square.

It’s time once again for the incomparable Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour. Ohio Ag Net’s Joel Penhorwood is riding along on the eastern leg this week as the group of scouts split up each day on 12 different routes to see things firsthand in American fields. The first day takes groups from Columbus to mid-Indiana.

Stop 14 – Madison County, IN

Corn: This was a field with holes in it, and one of those spots is where we found ourselves when we did our paces in. 75 bpa is where we found ourselves. Several stalks trying for 3 ears because of the lack of competition around it, but those just aren’t going to produce.… Continue reading

The 2019 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour kicks off Monday for its 27th year of taking a look at the nation’s crops through boots on the ground work. And with the delayed planting season for much of the corn belt, Pro Farmer Editor Brian Grete says this year is sure to be an interesting one, especially for the eastern leg of the crop tour.

“I think the eastern corn belt is obviously the major issue this year. Areas of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois really struggled. We are going to see crops like we have never seen before. With that said, it’s also not a barren wasteland across all that area. There will be crops to sample, we will sample them,” he said.

The eastern leg starts the week by traveling west from Columbus, Ohio to central Indiana, an area hit hard with prevented plant acreage.

Grete says the big unknown in this year’s tour is crop maturity.… Continue reading

Corn:

14.501 billion bu.; Average yield of 177.3 bu. per acre

Corn +/- 1% = 14.646 billion bu. to 14.356 billion bu.; 179.1 bu. to 175.5 bu. per acre

Soybeans:

4.683 billion bu.; Average yield of 53.0 bu. per acre

Soybeans +/- 2% = 4.731 billion bu. to 4.589 billion bu.; 54.1 bu. to 51.9 bu. per acre

Note: The estimates on this page reflect Pro Farmer’s view on production and yields. These estimates are based on assumptions for normal weather through the remainder of the growing season. We measured a mature crop that in some cases is just weeks away from harvest. Most of the corn crop (possibly with the exception of Iowa and Minnesota) will not be able to add to yield. Soybeans have the soil moisture needed for a strong finish. The soybean production estimate assumes a 500,000-acre reduction versus the June Acreage Report.

Corn

Ohio: 184 bu.… Continue reading

For a closer look, click on the pictures

See results from Day #1 of the Pro Farmer Crop Tour

See results from Day #2 of the Pro Farmer Crop Tour

See results from Day #3 of the Pro Farmer Crop Tour

Final Pro Farmer Results for Iowa

Corn: 188.2 bushels per acre

Soybeans: 1,208.99 pods in a 3 foot by 3 foot square

Final Pro Farmer Results for Minnesota

Corn: 178.67 bushels per acre

Soybeans: 1,090.47 pods in a 3 foot by 3 foot square

By Ty Higgins, Ohio Ag Net

Most days, the Pro Farmer Crop Tour will fill a truck up with 4 scouts to take on the Corn Belt. Today, however, they are entrusting a route to only two. For the final day of crop tour, it will be just me and Dick Overby. He is semi-retired from Rain & Hail (I don’t think he has retiring in him) and is from southern Minnesota.… Continue reading

For a closer look, click on the pictures

See results from Day #1 of the Pro Farmer Crop Tour

See results from Day #2 of the Pro Farmer Crop Tour

See results from Day #4 of the Pro Farmer Crop Tour

Final Pro Farmer Results for Illinois

Corn: 192.63 bushels per acre

Soybeans: 1,328.91 pods in a 3 foot by 3 foot square

By Ty Higgins, Ohio Ag Net

I have lucked out today. Pro Farmer had to rearrange some scouts and drivers this morning and they put me in a truck with Logan County farmer Bill Bayliss. I have known Bill for many years and he is always great to ride around with. He has some great stories about time in his part of Ohio and from his travels all over the world representing American agriculture. He is telling some tales now to our international scouts from Singapore and Brazil.… Continue reading

For a closer look, click on the pictures

See results from Day #1 of the Pro Farmer Crop Tour

See results from Day #3 of the Pro Farmer Crop Tour

See results from Day #4 of the Pro Farmer Crop Tour

By Ty Higgins, Ohio Ag Net

Final Pro Farmer Results for Indiana

Corn: 182.33 bushels per acre

Soybeans: 1311.87 pods in a 3 foot by 3 foot square

Looks like it will be a sloppy mess for Day 2. It won’t stop us, especially since we are riding along with the chief of the Eastern Leg of the 2018 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour, their Editor Brian Grete. He and I have been able to get to know each other very well over the past 7 years and riding with him is one of my favorite things about tour. He taught me about sampling and tour and about Iowa’s driver wave.… Continue reading

For a closer look, click on the pictures

See results from Day #2 of the Pro Farmer Crop Tour

See results from Day #3 of the Pro Farmer Crop Tour

See results from Day #4 of the Pro Farmer Crop Tour

By Ty Higgins, Ohio Ag Net

This will be my 7th year on the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour and I look forward to showing you what I am seeing across the Corn Belt. You can also follow on social media with #PFTour18. Today we head from Central Ohio to Central Indiana and our 12 scout teams will cover a lot of ground. Time to hit the road! – Ty

Final Pro Farmer Results for Ohio

Corn: 179.57 bushels per acre

Soybeans: 1,248.20 pods in a 3 foot by 3 foot square

Hamilton County, Indiana

Our last stop of Day 1 and although it may look a whole lot better than our last stop…it is worse.… Continue reading

By Ty Higgins, Ohio Ag Net

As the 2018 Ohio Crop Tour proved last week, this year’s corn and soybean crop may be a record breaker for the state. But, could it have been even better?

“The thing that I noticed early in the growing season was that farmers didn’t stabilize their nitrogen,” said Brett Barton, Ohio’s Sales Manager for AgXplore. “We are seeing the effects of that as we wind down the growing season.”

Because of a lack of heavy root setting in many corn fields in the spring, much of the nitrogen that was applied may not have made it to the plant before it left the soil profile. Barton says products like NZONE MAX or ContaiN to stabilize nitrogen and keep it accessible to the corn for a longer period of time.

“Those products work by taking the nitrogen molecule and binding it to a soil colliod, which plays an important role in ion exchange and fertility,” Barton said.… Continue reading

By Ty Higgins, Ohio Ag Net

It is almost that time of year again and I couldn’t be more ready! For the 7th year in a row, I will be taking part of the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour. It’s not just the 4-day drive across the Corn Belt checking crop development that I enjoy. There is just something about those you meet while I’m on the road. Those riding along with me as we scatter through the majority of the corn and soybean regions of the U.S. and those that meet us up the drive from the house as we stop to get a sample.

Look at that, over 100 words and I haven’t even mentioned the hole-in-the-all food joints we stop at for lunch or the nice cold drinks we are rewarded with after a long day of gathering information that farmers (and traders) are quite curious about.

Yes, I have made plenty of life-long friends and have shot thousands of photos to document the corn and soybean fields as I take this great annual trip, but the wall of hats in my office will be able to tell the stories from the road far better than I ever will.… Continue reading

Corn, soybeans and a solar eclipse! All three should make the 2017 Farm Journal Midwest Crop Tour very interesting.

I was on one of nearly 40 teams of four that will venture out into the great unknown. As we spider-webbed our way from Ohio west and from the Dakotas east, covering 80% of the corn and soybean regions of the United States, we dug a little deeper into the nearly harvest-ready corn and the soybean fields.

In general we found abundant variability throughout the east and crops that have a long way to go.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Tour averages

The U.S. corn crop estimate was 13.953 billion bushels with an average yield of 167.1 bushels per acre. The U.S. soybean crop is 4.331 billion bushels with an average yield of 48.5 bushels per acre, according to Farm Journal.

These estimates are based on assumptions for normal weather through September.… Continue reading

Presented by AgXplore

Overall Tour Summary and yield averages

See Day 1 results from the Farm Journal Midwest Crop Tour

See Day 2 results from the Farm Journal Midwest Crop Tour

See Day 3 results from the Farm Journal Midwest Crop Tour

Final results for the entire eastern leg of this year’s Midwest Crop Tour for Iowa and Minnesota.

Iowa

Corn – 179.79 bushels per acre

Soybeans – 1092.92 pods in a 3 x 3 foot square

Minnesota

Corn – 191.54 bushels per acre

Soybeans – 1019.96 pods in a 3 x 3 foot square

I am on another split route today as we head from Iowa City, Iowa to Rochester, Minnesota and I could not have a better driver for Day #4. I have had the chance to get to know Dick Overby over the years here on tour. He is from Minnesota and is retired from Rain & Hail, LLC.… Continue reading

Presented by AgXplore

See Day 1 results from the Farm Journal Midwest Crop Tour

See Day 2 results from the Farm Journal Midwest Crop Tour

See Day 4 results from the Farm Journal Midwest Crop Tour

Final results for the entire eastern leg of this year’s

Farm Journal Midwest Crop Tour for Illinois.

Corn – 180.72 bushels to the acre

Soybeans – 1230.77 pods in a 3 x 3 foot square

After 6 years on the Midwest Crop Tour today is a first for me. I am on a split route. This is where two scout teams take the same route and cut it into two. Farm Journal had to do that this year because of the overwhelming interest in the tour. I am told things could get really interesting (as if things haven’t been already) through today and tomorrow in Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota. We’ll see!

3:10 p.m.

Our last stop of the day was in Cedar County, Iowa and we ended the day on a high note.… Continue reading

Presented by AgXplore

See Day 1 results from the Farm Journal Midwest Crop Tour

See Day 3 results from the Farm Journal Midwest Crop Tour

See Day 4 results from the Farm Journal Midwest Crop Tour

Final results for the entire eastern leg of this year’s

Farm Journal Midwest Crop Tour for Indiana.

Corn – 171.23 Bushels to the Acre

Soybeans – 1168.78 Pods in a 3 x 3 foot square

Today is my annual ride along with Pro Farmer Editor Brian Grete. We have gotten to know each other pretty well over the past 6 years and he does an incredible job making sure this Eastern Leg of the Farm Journal Midwest Crop Tour goes off without a hitch. We have had many one-of-a-kind experiences over the year, including a great hole-in-the-wall BBQ joint (that I hope is still open and on our route today), doing the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in the middle of a corn field and almost getting killed by a train.… Continue reading