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
According to USDA’s latest Crop Progress report, 60% of the U.S. corn crop is rated good to excellent, unchanged from last week. Illinois corn conditions continue to improve each week.
The National Weather Service shows isolated areas of Iowa saw more than 20 inches of rain during the month of August. But with much of the summer and month being dry for northeast Iowa, the change was a sudden switch.
100 mph winds were clocked in Oelwein, Iowa, which is located northeast of Waterloo. Chip Flory says driving through the damage, he describes fields and infrastructure damaged in northeast Iowa on Tuesday.
Scouts saw drought damage instead of derecho devastation in eastern and north-central portions of Iowa on the Pro Farmer Crop Tour this year. Minnesota was much the same, with fields showing clear signs of stress.
Pro Farmer scouts pegged the Indiana average yield estimate at 193.48 bu. per acre on Tuesday, just slightly below USDA’s prediction of 194 bu. per acre.
The latest Crop Progress report put the corn crop this week at 62% good to excellent, a two-point drop in a week. Soybean conditions dropped 3% across the country, now sitting at 57% rated good to excellent.
As scouts set out on the 2021 Pro Farmer Crop Tour Monday they got a soggy start, a good sign for soybeans in August. While Ohio did not disappoint, South Dakota showed scars from the drought with a mature crop.
Drought conditions continue to plague portions of the Western Corn Belt, but in the East, it’s a much different story with Ohio farmers potentially sitting on an above average crop.
Pro Farmer Crop Tour is hitting the fields starting Monday, with a week of roughly 100 scouts capturing more samples across 2,000 fields. The scouts will work their way toward Rochester, Minnesota by Thursday.
On August 17, Pro Farmer scouts will be walking Illinois corn and soybean fields checking crop conditions and making annual yield projections.