Every farmer wants to grow bumper corn and soybean crops. That’s a given. But what about the years when crops are average?
Davis Michaelsen, guest host of AgriTalk, asked Brian Grete, team lead on the eastern leg of the 2022 Pro Farmer Crop Tour, whether what he’s seeing this year is, well, ordinary.
Grete pondered his response and then replied, “In Ohio, we saw a lot of variability in the corn, and soybeans are above average; in Indiana corn and soybeans are both probably ordinary but not subpar, and what we’ve seen in Illinois so far today is more consistency and not as much tip back in the corn and pretty good soybeans.... Better crops than what we saw the first couple of days,” he added. “Poor grain length was the main story on the first two days of the tour in Ohio and Indiana.”
Grete said he does try to keep in mind that the crops he looked at in Illinois on the tour in 2021 “were spectacular.”
In fact, the average corn yield for all combined areas of the state was 213 bushels per acre, according to the April 15, 2022, University of Illinois farmdoc daily. “The average corn yield in 2021 was the highest in the last three years and 10 bushels to the acre more than 2020,” it said.
Grete had made five stops this morning in Illinois before checking in with Michaelsen with his update.
“Illinois has a good, healthy corn crop,” Grete said. “Tall, dark green corn plants that look good from the road and in the field when you walk into them, too.
“Soybean pod counts have a bit more up and down, but they’ve been solid overall,” he added. “Just one sample has been a bit light; the others look darn good.”
You can hear Grete’s full report from today here:
On the western leg of the tour, Chip Flory was reporting from Iowa.“You can see some stress in the crop here, but there are some 200-plus bushel dryland corn in southwest Iowa,” he said. “In west-central Iowa, the corn is closer to the 160 to 170 bushel range.
“Even where it’s dry in areas, some of the guys are convinced they’ll see what they got a year ago,” he added. “It does conjure up thoughts that this corn crop is bulletproof.”
USDA-NASS data showed the 2021 state average yield for corn in Iowa was 205 bushels per acre. Whether farmers there will reach that number this year remains to be seen.
Get Flory’s complete report here:
