Midwest Crop Tour – Day Three

• August 25, 2011
• Paul Neiffer

I am sorry I did not post about day three of the crop tour sooner.  I have had multiple issues with cell phone coverage and Internet service on this trip so far.

Yesterday, we had to go north about 25 miles from Nebraska City before taking the toll bridge over the Missouri River near Plattsmouth, Nebraska.  Again, as we crossed the river, we noted multiple buildings, pivots and other structures under multiple feet of water.  That area will still take many weeks or months to recover.

We then headed due south and got almost to the Missouri border and then turned East.  For about 30-40 miles of driving in this area, we saw many areas of hail and wind devastation to the crops.  In one 80 acre field, we saw maybe 3 ears of corn standing with the remainder of the whole crop laying completely on the ground.  I tweeted a couple of these photos to Twitter.

The average bushel count for corn in this district was barely 110 bushels.  As we crossed over I-80, we came upon our largest yield of the date at about 205 bushels, however, the land was very dry and this ended up being one of our worst soybean count.  The corn crop was set a few weeks ago, however, beans are still making pods, etc. and this heat and lack of rain is not helping.

We then traveled almost to the top of Iowa and turned West to get to Spencer, Iowa.  The corn  in this area was very steady in the 160-200 range and it appears that the two west districts in central and northern Iowa may be a little better than last year, however, Southwest Iowa is expected to be 20% or more worse than last year.

I will post you on the last day either tonight or in the morning.

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