The next few weeks of August are a fun and troublesome time to follow along with farmers across the country as they share pictures, videos, and overviews of crop conditions. It is troublesome to many who have been affected by weather (too much or lack of rain, hail, wind, flooding, etc.), those who feel there is a monstrous crop in the countryside, and those who have missed opportunities to market. It’s fun to watch but sometimes hard to swallow.
It’s also the time when many prevalent crop tours aim to “paint a picture” of what the crop may be. As the numbers roll in, some people hesitate to believe the results, while others wonder if they are underestimating reality. The point is that they do the best they can to paint the picture! I’ve always liked the analogy that it’s hard for most people to predict their own farm average yield within 5 or 10 bushels even if they’ve farmed it for decades, and we are often critical of those who do these surveys for being off by similar or smaller amounts. And I’m not a good painter.
What I am really interested in this year, though, is the farmer’s answer on marketing and crop conditions from their perspective.
Old crop, new crop, and 2025 marketing strategies during a year where marketing and multi-year marketing may prove crucial for profitability. Farmers usually have a pretty good pulse on crop conditions within 20 miles of your home operation, and by asking for personal perspective, albeit a bit more emotional than counting kernels and pods, it tends to paint a good picture of farmer sentiment as we move the combine towards harvest.
We don’t collect any of your information, we simply compile it into some of the information you see below. The following pictures show the responses from the first five days we opened the survey to our consulting clients, accounting for about one million acres in 20 different states. After the survey has been open for a while online, we will follow up and add your data and results and help paint a different picture than the crop tour on marketing, farm profitability, and critical questions for the year(s) ahead.
