By Chris Clayton
DTN Ag Policy Editor
and
Pam Smith
DTN/Progressive Farmer Crops Technology Editor
By Chris Clayton
DTN Ag Policy Editor
And
Pam Smith
DTN/The Progressive Farmer Crops Technology Editor
AMES, Iowa, and GAYLORD, Minn. (DTN) -- Scout teams from the eastern leg of the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour fanned out Thursday morning on the last jaunt of the tour with mild weather conditions to pull samples.
DTN Ag Policy Editor Chris Clayton was on one of the longer tour routes on Thursday as his scout team moved southwest from Coralville, Iowa, through Iowa, Keokuk, Mahaska, Marion and Warren counties before turning north to get around Des Moines.
After six stops in south-central Iowa, the scout team's corn samples were averaging 196 bushels per acre. While the scout team crossed over multiple crop districts, the sampled fields generally were hitting higher yields than sample averages last year on the tour.
Pod counts in the six soybean fields in south-central Iowa sampled early Thursday were averaging more than 1,500 pods in a 3-foot-by-3-foot area, which was about 300 pods higher than the tour reported last year on those same crop districts. Still, soybean fields along the route also frequently showed signs of sudden death syndrome.
Meanwhile, scouts on the western leg of the tour headed into Minnesota Thursday morning to find a lush crop that had received recent rainfall. However, the green crop often looks different inside the field than from the road.
That's been the case on DTN/The Progressive Farmer Crops Technology Editor Pam Smith's route through southwest Minnesota Thursday morning where scouts sampled multiple fields that had hail damage that will take the top end off the yield in those fields. The eight fields sampled so far Thursday morning averaged 177.5 bpa for corn.
Soybean fields showed lots of potential on this route, with one field planted in 10-inch rows with a pod count of 2,362.9 in a 3-foot-by-3-foot square with several four-bean pods observed. The average for this tour so far was about 1,300 pods. Node spacing was good in many fields and beans were not quite as tall as scouts found in Iowa. There was also evidence of sudden death syndrome starting to show up.
Waterhemp remains to appear troublesome. However, nasty clogged fields were found next to clean fields.
The tour ends Thursday night in Rochester, Minnesota. Pro Farmer will then release its forecast for national corn and soybean production on Friday afternoon.
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
(AG/SK)
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