Crop Tour Day 3 Midday Update
Scouts Find Muddy Fields After Overnight Western Corn Belt Rains
EARLY and DAVENPORT, Iowa (DTN) -- Crop scouts on the western leg of the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour might have sampled dry fields Monday and Tuesday, but the skies opened up overnight into Wednesday.
Some areas west of the Missouri River near Omaha had 7-inch rain totals and farmers east of the river were looking at three to five inches. Scouts donned boots and waded into Iowa to find much better conditions than they had seen in Nebraska.
The route DTN/Progressive Farmer Crops Technology Editor Pam Smiths is on is traveling in west-central Iowa Wednesday and started at Missouri Valley and went north to Arcadia.
Six samples were pulled this morning on that route in the counties of Harrison, Crawford, Carroll and Sac. Corn samples averaged 195 bushels per acre compared to 184.8 bpa last year for that district and 178 for the three-year tour average.
Soybeans were a bit under average over the six samples at 1,111.3 pods in a three-foot-by-three-foot square, compared to 1,280.2 last year and the three-year average. Soybean pods were more filled out than in Nebraska
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EASTERN SCOUTS
Lightning and rain met crop scouts on the eastern leg of the crop tour coming out of Bloomington, Illinois, and heading west on Wednesday.
Basically every route on the eastern leg of the tour found heavy rains and muddy boots heading into corn and soybean fields throughout the morning. Still, as scouts crossed into Iowa near noon, the sun began to break. The fields, nonetheless, remained soaked.
On route of the eastern tour made seven stops Wednesday morning through central and western Illinois and saw potential corn yields ranging from 177 bushels per acre to 217 bpa. The average overall from the samples was 197 bpa running through Woodford, Marshall, Putnam, Bureau, Henry and Rock Island counties.
Statewide, USDA has pegged Illinois to average 200 bushels per acre.
Pod counts in soybeans Wednesday morning on that route were also large, averaging over 50 per plant and the plant populations in those fields were also high.
The eastern leg of the tour ends in Coralville, Iowa, later Wednesday evening. Western scouts will finish their day in Spencer, Iowa.
Pam Smith can be reached at pam.smith@dtn.com.
Follow her on Twitter @PamSmithDTN
Chris Clayton can be reached at chris.clayton@dtn.com
Follow him on Twitter @ChrisClaytonDTN
(CZ)
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