Day 1 of the 2023 Pro Farmer Crop Tour is in the books. Our 10 routes led us today from Sioux Falls SD to Grand Island NE. Most of the morning was spent in the 20 most Southeast Counties of South Dakota. As we finish South Dakota we move into the Northeast area of Nebraska and work our way to Grand Island.
In South Dakota we scouted crop districts 6 and 9. The routes that went West of Sioux Falls in crop district 6 towards Mitchell saw very good corn and soybean samples as they moved west. The routes that headed south of Sioux Falls towards Yankton in crop district 9 were much improved from last year’s extreme drought conditions. With the warmer conditions experienced this year we are sampling a fairly mature corn and soybean crop this year.
Rains are needed soon for these soybeans if they are going to maintain the pods they have and fill them out.
My 7 samples in South Dakota averaged 149.9 BPA with a high of 180.3 and a low of 139.7. District 9 has a three year average of 149.71 BPA so we were looking at a fairly normal crop. Our soybean samples averaged 1157 pods in a 3x3 square, with a high of 1439 and a low of 583. The three year average for our route was 1048 pods in a 3x3 square. All of our samples were in full pod set except for one field that was a double crop field that still had a few flowers evident.
As we moved into Nebraska we sampled in crop districts 3 and 6. Our route started at York, and passed thru Norfolk, West thru Albion, South to Central City and then into Grand Island. We took 17 samples along our route, 10 were irrigated and 7 were dry land. Our corn samples averaged 182.7 BPA, with a high of 251.3 and a low of 140.1. The irrigated corn crop is pretty solid this year, but the dry land was much improved from last year’s extreme drought conditions. Our 17 Soybean samples averaged 1333 pods in a 3x3 square, with a high of a whopping 2990 pods, and a low of 651. The irrigated soybeans should finish strong, but the dry land fields may struggle to hold their potential if the heat continues and rainfall continues to be absent.
Tomorrow we move into Southeast Nebraska. The morning samples will be mostly irrigated, but the afternoon will be mostly dry land. It will be interesting to see how the dry land field are holding up with the heat expected to continue thru the end of the week.