My route took me north and west out of Noblesville, Indiana, through crop districts 5, 2 and 1. There was heavy fog to start the day and as you would expect, heavy dew on crops. The fog didn’t fully lift until mid-morning.
In 10 stops in Indiana, my route had an average corn yield of 202.9 bu., with a range of 176.5 bu. to 256.6 bu. per acre. If you throw out the high and the low yields, most of our samples were in a range from 190 to 205. Ear counts in two 30 foot rows ranged from 85 to 117. Average grain length ranged from 6.17 inches to 8.5 inches. The corn we saw on my route was consistently strong.
Pod counts in 3’x3’ square along my route averaged 1072. The range on our 10 samples was wide, from 528 to 1674.4 The up and down pod counts were notable given the consistency of our corn samples.
As we transitioned into Illinois crop district 5, our corn yields declined, though we only had two samples, so that wasn’t enough to make much comment about the crop in this area. Our two yield samples were 166.7 bu. and 183.4 bu. per acre. The soybean pod counts on my route were 1160 and 1773. Once again, however, we only had three samples, so the sample size was too small to draw any conclusions.
Final Day 2 observations
I was impressed by the Indiana corn crop. I wasn’t as impressed with the soybean crop.
The Crop Tour average corn yield of 193.5 bu. per acre for Indiana was up 7.6% from last year. USDA’s Aug. 1 corn yield was up 3.7% from last year at a record 194 bu. per acre. This year’s Tour yield was up 10.9% versus our three-year average. If you add our average miss of 3 bu. too low to this year’s Tour average, it would be 196.5 bu. per acre.
Big yields typically come from consistency, which Indiana corn has this year. The only question I have with the Indiana crop at this stage is whether it will have enough moisture to finish strong. Portions of the state have been dry over the past month. The yield potential that’s still there is a testament to how strong of a growing season they had prior to the recent dry stretch. Corn is hanging on well, but will go backwards if there aren’t late-season rains.
The average pod count in a 3’x3’ square totaled 1239.7, down 3.2% from what we found last year on Crop Tour. Less pods doesn’t necessarily mean a lower yield. It just means there are fewer pods in the yield factory. It’s now up to Mother Nature whether there’s enough late-season moisture to allow all of the pods to plump up. If you multiply this year’s pod count by the five-year average number of pods it takes to make a bushel of soybeans in Indiana, it suggests an average yield of 59.3 bu. per acre, down 0.7 bu. from USDA’s August estimate.
Through the first two days of Crop Tour, the story from the eastern leg of Crop Tour has been the consistency and strong yield potential for corn. The soybean crop we’ve seen thus far is also strong, but not quite as impressive.