From the Rows
Day 3 Western Leg
Chip Flory
Welcome to western Iowa!
This is a “different” day on the western leg of the Pro Farmer Crop Tour. Normally we have the results from a state to share, but tonight I can talk only about 3 crop districts in Iowa – Districts 7 (SW), 4 (WC) and 1 (NW). It’s the western one-third of the state.
The southwestern crop district in Iowa saw beneficial rains last week. Corn and soybean crops seem to be well fed for the third full-week of August.
In the District 7 corn crop we found fewer ears in two 30-foot plots than year-ago (3.55% fewer), the average grain length was 6% longer than year-ago and the number of kernels around was up 0.37% from year-ago.
District 4 ear counts were down slightly from year-ago (0.42% fewer), but grain length was up 14.19% from year-ago and kernels around were up 2.24% from last year. That turns into more yield.
District 1 ear counts were down 1.25% from year-ago due to poor emergence, but that was offset by a 3.16% increase in the length of grain. Kernels around decreased 3.1% from year-ago.
It’s tough to judge the Iowa corn crop based on what we’ve seen in the western one-third of the crop, but it’s a good crop out west in Iowa. It’s got some problems, but it is generally a good crop.
Pod counts in Iowa District 1 down 2.5% from year-ago, were down 2.5% from year-ago in crop district 4 and were up an amazing 16.7% in southwest Iowa.
The Crop Tour is a discovery process ... and passing judgement on the Iowa crop based on what we’ve seen in the western one-third of the state doesn’t make sense. We need to wait and see what Brian’s group finds in the eastern half of the state before we decide “how good” the Iowa corn and soybean crops are.