Final day of the 2020 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour had us starting out on our portion of the split route from Iowa City parallel to I-80 on over to east of Des Moines. We then jogged north just east of Ames. The crew today had OH farmer Josh Yoder at the wheel, Sao Paulo Brazil resident Thiago Oliveira from Bto Pactual and I along for the ride. The sampling went by very quickly. We worked quickly and efficiently. Before we knew it, we’d pulled 10 samples for the day. We were in the IA counties of Johnson, Iowa, Poweshiek, Jasper, and Story. Johnson and Iowa counties are in crop reporting district 6 and the rest are all in district 5. Our route cut off at the MN border today. Just in the nick of time as the noontime heat was starting to become oppressive.
On our route today we saw an IA crop that disappointed in many respects. Our IA route average corn yield was 178 bu./acre with a high of 224 in Jasper Co. and a low of 84 bu./acre in Iowa Co. The crop showed signs of deterioration since we headed east to OH. The soil moisture situation will be a question mark on some of the fields where they’ve just dented. Where the milk line was halfway down the kernel, the crop is far enough along so the impact should be lessened. On the good fields, the crop health was stellar. On the poor fields, lots of tip back due excessive heat at the wrong times and no timely rains. The cavalry never came.
Our soybean pod counts, I found the consistency we’d been lacking on my routes the previous three days. On the IA portion of the route today our 3’x3’ measurement averaged 1329 pods. The high was in Johnson Co. at 2370 pods and the low was in Iowa Co. with only 936 pods. Sampling beans all day by myself, this was refreshing to see. Limited insect activity in the form of some border feeding by Japanese beetles here and there. There is trouble looming on the horizon however in the disease arena on this route. Numerous fields sampled had white mold present and early stages of SDS beginning to develop. More worrisome was the number of fields we didn’t sample exhibiting the same symptoms.
The extreme heat on this year’s Crop Tour made it less enjoyable at times. To counter that, scouts were on the road earlier than ever this year. The first two days out, we were spared the brunt of the hottest weather. The last two days took their toll with 100 degrees being seen on several pickup thermometers. Fortunately, no one suffered from heat stroke or exhaustion, a very real possibility when working as hard as the scouts did in extreme heat.
For my 20th edition, I’d like to thank all of the sponsors for this year’s Crop Tour and to Brian Grete for allowing me to serve as Tour Consultant again this year. Again this year, running with two person crews and split routes has helped keep me from burning out. I received lots of good questions and photos from scouts concerning insects, diseases and general crop management issues. It helps keep my head in the game and makes it all worth it.