My route dead headed north out of Noblesville, Indiana, up to the Marion area, where we started sampling, traveling north and then west across crop districts 3, 2 and 1.
In 8 stops in Indiana, my route had an average corn yield of 173.7 bu., with a range of 126.5 bu. to 205.9 bu. per acre. Ear counts in two 30 foot rows were variable, ranging from 66 to 106. Maturity on my route ranged from late blister to early dent, with most in the milk or dough stages. My route saw solid corn for the most part, but nothing spectacular.
Pod counts in 3’x3’ square along my route averaged 1268.82. The range on our eight samples was 911 to 2311. The soybeans we sampled were relatively clean and disease free. We did notice the color was changing on several soybean fields along our route. Other scouts noted Sudden Death Syndrome in their stops. Beans in general were starting to fill more than what we saw in Ohio.
Of the two crops, I was more impressed with soybean along our route than corn. The corn isn’t bad, but it isn’t spectacular. I was expecting to see better corn in Indiana. Of course, I wasn’t in the best growing areas of the state, as far northwestern areas have sandy soils and irrigation pivots were running ahead of the coming heat. Speaking of heat, we dodged a bullet for a second straight day as temps were rather seasonal. That will change on Wednesday.
Final Day 2 observations
Corn ear counts are down a little from year-ago, while grain length is up a little. Key will be how many kernels the Indiana corn crop is able to hold onto into harvest and how much weight the crop adds. Weather following the extreme heat wave will key. Some rains will be needed to avoid kernel abortion and proper grain fill.
Soybeans are down flowering. Late-season weather will determine how many of the hefty number of pods we found will be maintained through harvest. September rains will be needed for soybeans to maximize yield potential we measured.
The Crop Tour average corn yield of 180.89 bu. per acre for Indiana was up 1.7% from last year but down 1.5% from the three-year average. USDA’s Aug. 1 corn yield was up 2.6% from last year at a record 195 bu. per acre. Since 2001, Crop Tour data has been an average of 3.4 bu. too low for Indiana. If you add that to this year’s Crop Tour yield, it would be 184.3 bu., well below USDA’s Aug. 1 estimate.
The average pod count in a 3’x3’ square totaled 1309.96, up 12.3% from what we found last year on Crop Tour. It’s now up to Mother Nature whether there’s enough late-season moisture to allow all of the pods to plump up. Pod counts in the state were up 8.4% from the three-year Tour average.
Through the first two days, the surprise from the eastern leg of Crop Tour was that the Crop Tour corn yield for Ohio came in bigger than Indiana. The Ohio corn crop lived up to my pre-Tour expectations; the Indiana crop did not. That’s not saying Indiana’s corn crop won’t outyield Ohio, because it probably will, but our sample results surprised me. Soybean pod counts are big... now the crops in Indiana and Ohio need favorable late-season weather to maximize the big yield factory they built through the first two-thirds of the growing season.