First Day of the Midwest Crop Tour
Today was the first day of the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour. This is my sixth straight trip on the tour and after spending the last three years on the Eastern Leg, I decided to spend this year on the Western Leg. My expectations for today was to see good crops in South Dakota and great crops in NE Nebraska and that is close to what I saw on our route.
We took about 20 samples with about half in South Dakota and half in Nebraska. Our first sample in South Dakota was about 210 bushels per acre and it took almost to the end of the day to get another sample higher than that. The corn in South Dakota is very consistent with excellent moisture. My expectations regarding corn yields in South Dakota were exceeded. The soybeans were very consistent and with the recent rains, it should fill out nicely.
When we crossed the Missouri River into Nebraska, we found just OK yields in the northern counties. The actual averages last year were in the 180-195 range while this year our average for these counties were closer to 150. However, as we traveled toward Grand Island (where we spent the night), the yields continued to climb (which we expected). All-in-all, yields up north were lower than I expected and yields near Grand Island were about what I expected. Many of the other scouts saw better yields today. One thing that will drive up the yields is that we saw very little low yields. Usually in Nebraska you have a lot of high yields and a lot of low yields and we just did not see the very low yields.
Soybeans looked very good in Nebraska, but they usually do and until you cut them, you never can quite tell what they will yield.
Tomorrow we head due east from Grand Island to Nebraska City. I will fill you in on our day tomorrow.
Paul Neiffer, CPA
Paul Neiffer is a certified public accountant and business advisor specializing in income taxation, accounting services, and succession planning for farmers and agribusiness processors. Paul is a principal with CliftonLarsonAllen in Walla Walla, Washington, as well as a regular speaker at national conferences and contributor at agweb.com. Raised on a farm in central Washington, he has been immersed in the ag industry his entire life, including the last 30 years professionally. Paul and his wife purchase an 180 acre ranch in 2016 and enjoy keeping it full of animals.
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