A theme during the 2021 Pro Farmer Crop Tour, which ran Aug. 16-19, was record ear counts as scouts pulled samples in seven states. Ear counts were up versus 2020 in five states. Only South Dakota and Minnesota, which were hurt by drought, had lower numbers.
The average ear count in two 30" rows from the 1,710 Crop Tour samples was a record 99.34. Ear numbers bested the previous high of 99.05 in 2018 and topped the prior five-year average by 2.81 ears. Illinois had the highest average ear count at 104.2.
In August, USDA estimated the state’s corn yield at a record 214 bu. per acre. It takes a high number of ears to produce a record yield, and based on what we found during the Tour, Illinois has enough ears to challenge the state’s high yield of 210 bu. in 2018. While this year’s Tour ear numbers for the state were down 1.19 ears (1.1%) from the 2018 high, they were up 2.6 ears (2.6%) compared with the average from 2016 to 2020.
STRONG START, STRONG FINISH
A high number of ears this year wasn’t surprising given the strong start and favorable growing conditions.
“A lot of it goes back to planting conditions, which were favorable for almost everyone,” says Farm Journal Field Agronomist Ken Ferrie. “We had few seedling blight issues, which led to high emergence rates. Another factor is the recent shift to planting soybeans first into the tougher soil conditions instead of corn. Delaying the earliest corn planting just a little bit means more ideal conditions and stronger emergence.”
