August 19, 2009

Scouts travelling across Nebraska Tuesday (August 18) on one route of the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour said they are finding "pretty good" corn and soy crops.

 

The scouts on one route along the tour's western leg are encountering improved maturity levels compared to fields seen on Monday.

 

Corn maturity is nearly at the full dent stage of development but is not healthy as crops viewed Monday, scouts said.

 

Most of the crops have been in irrigated fields, with some leaf diseases seen. Scouts have seen gray leaf spot, cherry aphids and some rust.

 

Scouts along this route left Grand Island, Neb., Tuesday morning and initially crisscrossed US Route 34 before heading east along state Highway 66.

 

A lot of hail damage has been seen, but yield potential remains good, the group said.

 

"I'm not disappointed with corn, as it's similar to last year with good supplies of moisture," said Terry Johnston, a crop tour consultant. "It's not a bin buster, but it's a good crop."

 

Soy is further along than what had been seen Monday, and should produce a good crop, said a local farmer and crop scout.

 

While Nebraska soy fields have been free of insect pests, storm and hail damage has been observed.

 

Pod populations are right on par with last year, Johnston said.

 

Corn yields along the route have ranged from 97.8 to 208 bushels per acre, and pod counts in a three-foot-by-three-foot plot have ranged from 739 to 1,242.

 

On a second route through Franklin and Nuckolls counties scouts reported seeing good irrigated corn with maturities much further advanced than crops seen in the northern part of the state. Irrigated corn along the second route showed yield ranges from 180 to 215 bushels/acre. In dryland, or unirrigated, fields the range was 110 to 140 bushels/acre.

 

"Overall, the crops look good, with pod fill better in soy," said Chip Flory, editor of the Pro Farmer Newsletter and director of the western portion of the tour.

 

However, as both routes moved farther east, scouts reported encountering drier conditions and crops stressed from a lack of moisture.

 

The US Department of Agriculture earlier this month projected that Nebraska would produce a corn crop of 1.5 billion bushels with a yield of 166 bushels/acre.

 

The state's soy crop is estimated at 227 million bushels, with a yield of 49 bushels/acre. Scouts will convene in Nebraska City, Neb., Tuesday evening to calculate corn yield and soypod counts for Nebraska.

 

The Pro Farmer tour also has an eastern leg, which began Tuesday in Fishers, Ind. Both legs of the tour will converge in Austin, Minn., on Thursday.