August 20, 2009

Scouts on one route of the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour have encountered decent crops in Iowa so far Wednesday (August 19), but the maturity of the corn is less than was seen in southeast Nebraska Tuesday.

 

Scouts on this route of the western leg of the tour left Nebraska City, Neb., Wednesday morning and travelled north along Interstate 29 into Iowa.

 

Variations in plant populations were observed from field to field, with stalk lodging, or breakage, witnessed. Corn was seen in late milk to early dough stage of development, scouts said.

 

We "have seen decent crops but corn is farther behind in maturity than expected," said Gary Wietgrefe, crop scout and agronomist with NK Brand Syngenta.

 

Disease pressure has been light. The lagging maturity of corn and soys is not a concern as the crops have adequate moisture, Wietgrefe said.

 

However, a third of the corn crops have some nitrogen deficiencies and lodging.

 

Soy crops are moving along fairly well, scouts said.

 

On another route, scouts travelling north through Freemont, Mills, Cass and Montgomery counties have witnessed good corn and soy crops.

 

"Corn crops are living up to [the US Department of Agriculture's] August yield estimates on this route," said Chip Flory, director of the western leg of the tour.

 

Corn yields have ranged from 156 to 232 bushels an acre on Flory's route.

 

In August, the USDA estimated 2009 Iowa corn production at 2.470 billion bushels with a yield of 185.0 bushels/acre.

 

"[Soy] have some impressive pod sets, we have run into some disease issues, said Flory. Light sudden death syndrome was witnessed in one field and frog leaf spot was seen in two of the six fields surveyed, he added.

 

Overall, scouts on both routes said crops look good and the fields observed have high yield potential.

 

The USDA estimated 2009 Iowa soy production at 506 million bushels with a yield of 52.0 bushels/acre.

 

The western leg of the tour will gather in Spencer, Iowa, Wednesday evening to compare notes, calculate yields and discuss overall trends. Pro Farmer will issue its estimate of Iowa corn yields and average soy pod counts at the gathering.

 

The tour also has an eastern leg, which departed from Bloomington, Ill., Wednesday morning. Both legs of the tour will converge in Austin, Minn., on Thursday.