Crop tour shows potential Midwest yields

August 26th, 2014

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Category: Grains, Oilseeds

(AgriNews) – Last week’s rains came in the nick of time for Minnesota’s corn and soybean crop, said Chip Flory on the final day of the Pro Farmer Crop Tour.

Flory is the editorial director for Pro Farmer, which hosts the annual multi-state crop tour.

Scouts gathered Aug. 17 and started their tour of corn and soybean fields on Aug. 18, ending in Rochester on Aug. 21. The eastern group stopped in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and eastern Iowa before coming into southeast Minnesota.

The western group started in Sioux Falls, S.D., veered south to Nebraska and came back through western Iowa and up into Minnesota. The eastern group follows 12 different routes; the western group follows 10 different routes. Together, the two groups put on an estimated 27,000 miles and take 1,300 corn yield samples and 1,300 soybean yield observations.

The rainfall made for a muddy day of final collections. The numbers still were coming in on the afternoon of Aug. 21, but Flory said the corn crop looked similar in Minnesota to the route he ran last year. His numbers matched those of 2013. The crop is further ahead this year, with most of the corn in the early to mid-dough stage. Last year, they measured potential yield. He did see some effect from the dry conditions in July and August and loss of nitrogen from intense June rainfall with lime-green colored corn and corn giving up kernels at the tip.

Minnesota’s corn crop needs slightly below normal temperatures and no frost to Oct. 10 to finish strong.

“Give it a slow cook to end the year,” he said.

Similar to last year’s corn crop, this year’s soybeans are a little behind schedule in Minnesota, Flory said. The pods are a little flatter than he’d like to see.

He came from the western leg of the tour and said corn yields in the southeast part of South Dakota look to be akin to a typical crop in the area. Soybean yields likewise will be ordinary. Some Sudden Death Syndrome has been showing up in the field.

In northeast Nebraska, population issues exist in irrigated fields, but dryland corn is going to bring up the state average. He expects their yield to be up 5 percent from a year ago.

A concern in northeast Nebraska is the amount of waterhemp. Farmers have let the weed get away from them and they need to do a better job managing the prolific seed producer.

Flory said he also saw too much waterhemp in Minnesota, and it’s starting to shed seed, a problem for the weed seed bank.

The crop in western Iowa is amazingly consistent. With yield estimates varying only five bushels across the western third of the state. The waterhemp problem is much less severe in Iowa.

In Illinois and Indiana, crops look fantastic, Flory said.

Illinois has had a perfect growing season with moderate temperatures and rainfall as needed. The crop has never been stressed. As a result, the corn is tall with big ears and deep green color.

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