At the start of the week of the annual Pro Farmer Crop Tour, USDA trimmed corn condition a few points. Sixty-eight percent of the crop is in good/excellent shape, down from 70 percent the prior week. The bottom end of the ratings crept up two points to 12 percent. Soybean condition also worsened slightly with the top end down one point to 65 percent and the bottom end at 11 percent.
Corn denting is well above its 26 percent average at 44 percent. In the states we serve, Iowa is at 42 percent (average 21); Kansas, 58 (36); Nebraska, 38 (25) and South Dakota, 38 (12).
Soybean pod setting also is ahead of average at 91 percent in the 18 states against an average of 83 percent. Iowa farmers reported 93 percent (85 percent average); Kansas, 82 (67); Nebraska, 92 (88) and South Dakota, 91 (85).
Crop Tour
The annual Pro Farmer Crop Tour kicked off and the day one results were startling: A 100-bu./acre range of estimates. More than 100 scouts took to the roads in Nebraska, South Dakota and Ohio. The western group suffered downpours – rather unusual for the tour.
Jeff Wilson, leading the tour for the first time this year, was among those taking field measurements in southeastern South Dakota. Estimates ranged from 153 to 248 bu./acre, averaging 185 bu. – a little higher than the 170 bu. estimate from USDA last week.
Tour members traveling in northeast Nebraska reported 192 bu./acre dryland east of Norfolk, 196 bu./acre east of Columbus, and 200-plus in Antelope County. In other parts of Nebraska, there were reports of hail, flooding and delayed development, disease pressure and irregular fertilization and fill. Follow the tour on Twitter: #PFtour18.
Grain sorghum
Little change was reported in the sorghum crop, with one more percentage point falling from fair to poor, putting the poor/very poor score at 18 and good/excellent steady at 49 percent in the 11 states. Forty-six percent of the crop is coloring with 23 percent mature, compared with 43 percent and 27 percent respectively.
Wheats
Harvest of winter wheat is 97 percent complete, one point behind average while 60 percent of spring wheat has been harvested, versus 44 percent on average.
Spring condition held steady at the lower end of the range but lost one point at the upper end.
