Preliminary Day 1 Observations from the Midwest Crop Tour

August 22, 2011

By: Julianne Johnston, Pro Farmer Digital Managing Editor

The eastern leg of the 2011 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour began in Columbus, Ohio, and will meet in Fishers, Indiana. The western leg of the Tour began in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and will meet in Grand Island, Nebraska. Tonight, final results Ohio and South Dakota will be released on www.profarmer.com. Following are preliminary route reports from Tour leaders.

Western Tour leader and Pro Farmer Editor Chip Flory this morning sampled in the South Dakota counties of Minnehaha (District 6), Turner and Union (District 9), and in Nebraska counties of Dakota, Thurston and Burt (District 3).

To start his day, Chip's route began with three corn samples above 190 bu. per acre, with his South Dakota route averaging 177 bu. per acre. "They are on the edge of being too dry and it's drier west of where we were today. They need a rain -- sooner the better for both corn and soybeans," said Chip.

Chip says corn maturity is late dough to early dent, with one that was hard dent. "The field that is in hard dent looks like it was pushed a little too much, but still was pretty good," he adds.

Pod counts on his route this morning came in under year-ago but above the three-year average. "Two fields were just filthy with aphids," says Chip."But that was the only real bug or disease issues seen so far today. Once we got down near Lyons, Nebraska, we saw some moisture from last night's rain."

Western Tour consultant Terry Johnston this morning took samples in the South Dakota counties of Hanson, Miner, Sanborn, Davison (District 6), Hutchinson, Charles Mix and Bon Homme (District 9). He reports an average corn yield is 120 bu. per acre so far on this route, with a low of 88 bu. and a high of 180 bushels.

"The corn crop looks pretty good. The crop needs rain after starting out with too much moisture this spring. The crop north of 90 was better and we are running into more moistures stress as we head south," he says. "Most of the crop is in late dough or early dent -- maturity is not an issue."

Terry reports 3 ft. by 3 ft. square averaged 1,035 pods, with a range of 812 to 1,300 pods. "The beans need a rain to fill pods, but the crop is uniform and clean -- no bug or disease issues. The pods that are there are filling," he reports.