From the Rows
Day 2 Western Leg
Chip Flory
I’ve said it many times. Crop Tour is a discovery process and we’ve got to let the discovery happen. Don’t anticipate too much. Don’t make assumptions based on one route. Wait for the numbers to tell the story.
And the numbers from Nebraska are telling a very interesting story. Start with this number: 399. That’s the number of corn samples scouts pulled from the eastern half of the state. There were a few less bean samples, but it was a fantastic effort by all the scouts.
Very quickly on soybeans, the average number of pods in a 3’X3’ square this year was 1,172.48 – up 1.1% from year-ago. That means this year’s bean crop is running at about the same capacity as last year’s. But last year – the bean crop had yield built by now and the task was to hold onto as much of that yield as possible. Some caught the late rains, some didn’t. This year, about half of the bean crop has done what it needs to do to build yield... but the other half still has a lot of work to do to fill pods and gain weight. The moisture profile is much better this year than last, but better than year-ago doesn’t mean there is “enough” moisture. Beans need another shot of rain to finish building yield and to allow earlier-planted beans to hold onto the yield they’ve built.
- Nebraska growers have (so far) done a very good job controlling weeds.
- Bean crop health is good, but there is some white mold that is knocking down yields in some fields.
- There are some bug problems, but nothing that growers in Nebraska City tonight seems concerned about.
A relatively small portion of the corn crop north of the Platte River needs every minute of the growing season ahead of the normal first frost date to get to maturity, but much of that corn crop would benefit from a few extra days on the end of a growing season before the first frost. Corn maturity south of the Platte is generally further along and shouldn’t have much difficulty reaching black layer ahead of the normal first frost date.
This year’s tour generated an average Nebraska corn yield of 173.25 bu. per acre, up 3.6% from year-ago.
- Ear count in two 30-foot plots averaged 90.91, down 0.19% from year-ago.
- Grain length this year averaged 7.03 inches, up 3.38% from year-ago.
- Kernel rows around the ear is an impressive 16.45, up 2.3% from year-ago.
Slightly fewer ears, longer grain length and more kernel rows equals a bigger yield.
The Nebraska crops have witnessed darn near everything nature can throw at them in 2024.
- There is evidence of a tough planting and emergence season in an extremely variable ear set in irrigated and dryland fields.
- Wide areas of corn and soybean crops have been destroyed by hail – as much as 400,000 to 500,000 acres in Nebraska were or will be “zeroed out.”
- Nebraska remined some growers in the southeast part of the state that “drought happens.”
- The WBC is back (Western Bean Cutworm)
There are other challenges, but this is a good corn crop and the bean crop has potential to be good – even a touch better than year-ago.