Crop Watch 2025: Corn Yield Threats
Several threats are impacting corn yields this season, including overly tight tassel wrap, Southern Rust and tar spot.
Unscripted: ‘Overly Tight Tassel Wrap’ Affecting Pollination?
Ken Ferrie, Farm Journal field agronomist, joins Tyne Morgan and Clinton Griffiths to shed light on crop conditions, particularly pollination issues.
Crop Condition News
As Ontario, Canada farmer Julie Maw scouts her wheat fields, it’s the moment of truth for the record number of acres planted across the province this year.
Farm Bureau finds 2022 weather events added up to 18 weather and climate disasters, each with damages exceeding $1 billion.
Scenes across Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas resemble the Dust Bowl after winds topping 100 mph ravaged the area. Growers are dealing with a dryland wheat crop that could already see abandonment as high as 80%.
As La-Niña ends, meteorologists say the next two months could determine whether we see a drought like 2012 or a return of regular rains across the lower 48.
Tar spot is tearing through Midwest cornfields, causing quick maturity and in some cases, cutting yields in half. Missy Bauer has tips for assessing which fields should be harvested first to salvage the yield left.
The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service announces the Federal Grain and Inspection Service will publish a proposed rule seeking public comment on whether to make changes to U.S. grading standards for soybeans.
Some Iowa growers saw huge yield losses this season from a so-called edge effect. Illinois farmers also report seeing it ding yields. Agronomists are working to confirm contributing factors but haven’t nailed them down.
Extreme weather situations, including the annual Derecho, hit regions on the eastern leg earlier this year. While the eastern Corn Belt isn’t as dry as its western counterpart, yield potential looks lower than 2021.
Tuesday’s Crop Tour trek through Nebraska and Indiana gave scouts a glimpse at the moderate to exceptional drought Mother Nature has brought down on soil and crops this growing season.
Pro Farmer estimates the U.S. corn crop at 13.759 billion bushels, with an average yield of 168.1 bu. per acre, and the U.S. soybean crop at 4.535 billion bushels, with an average yield of 51.7 bu. per acre.