The 2022 Pro Farmer Crop Tour will be sweeping the Midwest soon. We spoke with a handful of master crop scouts to get a preview of what to expect on each leg of the tour.
Eastern Leg
After 18 years following the eastern leg of the crop tour, Richard Guse, a farmer hailing from Waseca, Minnesota, says his excitement to see old friends and new crops never wanes.
“Depending on the year, seven to eight of us meet up on Friday night and spend the weekend driving down to Ohio and work our way back,” says Guse. “It’s really nice to get together and share an evening meal”
Disease is always on the forefront of Guse’s mind when he sets off on crop tour, and he says this year will be no different.
Kyle Wendland, a farmer in Fredericksburg, Iowa, says his sites are set on drought this year.
“I’m interested to see what emergence looks like across the corn belt,” he says. “With the wetter spring, some people might have mudded the crops in so we might see some poor stands. I’m curious to see if the ear counts are good like last year.”
Wendland says prevent plant situations and double-cropped beans are on his list as well, but he’s not sure he’ll see much of it on the eastern leg this year, as most fields in his area are looking “really good.”
Western Leg
Moisture steadily fell from the sky onto the central Midwest this spring and into the growing season. Western territories weren’t as lucky, which has some people shifting their crop tour leg interest.
Peter Meyer, Head of Grains and Oil Seeds Analyst at S&P Global Platts, says he’s hopped around from leg-to-leg in the past, he doesn’t feel the eastern leg ranks as high on his priority list this year.
“I’ve already driven 3,000 miles from Ohio to South Dakota and back the last week of June. I don’t think there’s much of a story in the East,” says Meyer. “While they got planted a little late, it looked okay. Especially South Dakota—it’s the best I’ve ever seen for them.”
Brazil’s poor soybean crop last year coupled with the situation in Ukraine, has put “a lot of pressure” on U.S. producers this this season, according to Meyer. To get a grasp on what’s to come this fall, Meyer says he intends to stay on the western front to analyze the drought situation.
Others, like Brent Judisch—a farmer hailing from Cedar Falls, Iowa—hope to cover as many fields as possible to assess weed control needs.
“We have scouts that we chat with week-to-week so we can understand the situation so there aren’t a lot of surprises. With that said, tar spot is becoming a major issue,” says Judisch. “I’m wondering what the weed control looks like, especially in beans with the shorter sprayer dates and hours with Dicamba.”
Tim Gregerson, Herman, Nebraska farmer, echoed Judisch, saying he’s concerned about tar spot in his region as well. However, he’s not as concerned with weeds this crop tour as he is with being a hostess.
“I met a new guy—a meteorologist at a junior college in Long Island—on the crop tour last year. His grandparents started their operation within 6 miles of my grandparents’ home farm, and we didn’t know it until last year,” says Gregerson. “He’s going to come stay with me for a day and a half before the crop tour.”
The two keep in touch regularly, according to Gregerson, which he says is a common theme after attending crop tour just once.
“I talk to a few guys pretty often during the week and I’m really looking forward to getting together again in person,” he says.
The Pro Farmer Crop Tour will be held from Aug. 22-25. To register for the event, click here.
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