September 10, 2009

A private group that owns several grain elevators forecast central Illinois' 2009 corn yield at 201.52 bushels per acre, based on 250 samples taken from 125 fields surveyed.

 

The group, Bell Enterprises Inc., which owns grain elevators in Congerville, Deer Creek, Goodfield and Mackinaw, released the results from its 2009 corn yield tour of McLean, Woodford and Tazewell counties in central Illinois Tuesday (September 8).

 

The tour's history of underestimating the crop size by 2 percent to percent led the group to fine-tune their process this year. The tour used a process of weighing each ear and recording the weight and matching it against the number of kernels per ear.

 

In 2008, BEI estimated corn yields at 192.89 bushels an acre from 262 samples. The actual yield for the region in 2008 was 212.54 bushels per acre, BEI reported.

 

The tour reported notable ear counts, with a net decrease of 67 ears per acre from last year's tour. The ear count is down slightly from 2008, despite farmers planting from 500 to 1,000 more seeds an acre this year, said Kim Craig, the BEI tour leader.

 

The area lost some ears from the large stand populations observed in June, with some stalks not producing an ear, Craig said. Hardly any second ears were observed on the tour as well, Craig said.

 

Poor planting conditions could have led to the loss of ears or possibly some population issues, said Craig.

 

Nevertheless, new corn varieties are yielding higher density per kernel, with test weights a bit heavier than last year, Craig reports. Overall, "a pretty decent crop was observed, but it will need good weather into October, as crops observed were 3 1/2 to 4 weeks behind in development," he added.

 

For the one-day tour conducted Friday, 71 percent of the participants did not expect the crop to be matured by Oct. 1, with 83 percent suggesting additional rain would not add yield to the crop.

 

The subjective survey of tour participants reported soil moisture at 42 percent good and 58 percent excellent.

 

Stalk quality was reported 4 percent poor, 88 percent good, and 8 percent excellent.