Your Pro Farmer newsletter (Aug. 17, 2024) is now available

The Pro Farmer Crop Tour is Aug. 19-22, our 32nd year. Because USDA no longer collects objective yield samples in August, this will be the industry’s first broad look at field data from across the Corn Belt. The objective of Crop Tour is to find a representative sample of yield potential across the seven Corn Belt states from the more than 1,600 samples each of corn and soybeans. Follow along with results throughout the week and compare this year’s data to years past. You can also scout your own fields using the Pro Farmer formulas. USDA’s August crop estimates, which were based on farmer surveys, FSA certified acreage and satellite imagery, featured record corn and soybean yields that would result in the third largest corn crop and a new high for soybean production. That swelled projected new-crop soybean ending stocks, but corn carryover declined from last month. Demand concerns tied to China’s economic struggles, ample global supplies and recent U.S. recession fears have eroded investor appetite for commodities, causing funds to amass a record net short position across the raw commodity sector. We cover all of this and much more in this week’s newsletter, which you can download here.