2012 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour: Western Leg
sunrise over soybeans
2012 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour: Western Leg
Harvest has come early to many parts of Iowa this year due to stress from heat and lack of moisture. In many cases, cobs were bending over and stalks were weak, indicating it was time to harvest. Even so, this particular farmer, by his estimation, expected his farm to yield 150 bu. per acre, which would be better than many farms we saw today.
2012 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour: Western Leg
Based on the color of this corn field, you would expect it to be October, not Aug. 20.
2012 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour: Western Leg
Crop scout Ken Eckhardt, a farmer from Minnesota Lake, Minn., counts the number of beans in the pods on a South Dakota field.
2012 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour: Western Leg
Crop scout Marcio Castelloes counts the pods on a sample in Nebraska.
2012 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour: Western Leg
The majority of this field in Lincoln County, S.D. has been cut for silage. Yet, its yield estimate was just a little over 150 bu./acre.
2012 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour: Western Leg
Look at the difference in kernel size between these two Iowa corn samples. Even though scouts corn yields that averaged about 136 bu. per acre, compared to the USDA’s Aug. 10 estimate of 141, it’s going to take more kernels to produce a bushel.
2012 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour: Western Leg
Talk about dry! Look how deep this crack is in a Union County, S.D. field.
2012 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour: Western Leg
Scouts from all over the world are sampling corn and soybean fields across the Corn Belt this week.
2012 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour: Western Leg
The power of water! These two fields were across a service road from each other. One was irrigated, one was not. One is estimated to yield 190.5 bu./acre, the other 1.7 bu./acre.
2012 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour: Western Leg
Crop scout Emily Flory takes a photo of a Nebraska corn sample so she can tweet a report from the field.
2012 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour: Western Leg
Crop scout Ken Eckhardt, a farmer from Minnesota Lake, Minn., counts the number of ears within 30’.
2012 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour: Western Leg
Pro Farmer Editor Chip Flory welcomes the 44 scouts in Sioux Falls, S.D. and gives them the plan for the week.
2012 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour: Western Leg
In Clay County, Neb., scouts found a four-bean pod on a soybean plant.
2012 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour: Western Leg
Ears from irrigated Nebraska files showed lots of yield potential.
2012 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour: Western Leg
Crop scouts Leslie Smith and Federico Vargas shuck three ears to estimate a yield for a Nebraska corn field.
2012 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour: Western Leg
This Nebraska corn field was plagued by spider mites and corn aphids.
2012 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour: Western Leg
Look at the difference in kernel size between an irrigated field and non-irrigated field.
2012 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour: Western Leg
Crop scouts leave bright and early from Grand Island, Neb.
2012 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour: Western Leg
Crop scout Federico Vargas pulls three random soybean plants to estimate yield potential.
2012 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour: Western Leg
Crop scout Marty Tegtmeier examines dramatic wind damage was found in western Iowa. The second picture (205) shows some of the wind damage that we witnessed on the western leg of Iowa tour.
2012 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour: Western Leg
Scouts found several ears like this, which suffered from tip fill. Drought interfered with corn pollination.
2012 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour: Western Leg
We saw some extremely healthy, dark green soybean plants, some with good pod clusters of four or more. But the yield calculations were pretty uneven. On the other hand, there wasn’t as much of the problem with the bottom third not being developed, like they saw on yesterday’s tour through Nebraska.
2012 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour: Western Leg
We found one farmer who had already harvested his 114-day corn, which he must have planted in late March. Our group decided this was an extremely aggressive move.