Wow!
I have been doing the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour for six years now. The first two in the West, the next three in the East (including last years bumper crop) and this year in the West. Until today, the most samples I ever saw on one route over 200 bushels was last year through Indiana and Illinois where we had 4 in one day.
Today, we had 3 samples in District 7 of Iowa which is in the far SW corner. We had one sample over 200 there. We then took 5 samples in District 4 and each one was over 200 bushels with a high of 242. We then finished up with District 1 with 6 samples there. 5 were over 200 with a high of 269 on the last sample (with 3-20 kernels around) and the only sample under 200 was due to a 4″ stubby that was the 5th ear selected (we always select the 5th, 8th and 11th ear in our row).
This led to an average of 211 and without District 7, the average was closer to 225. Now, we were the lucky route today. Almost all of the other routes only had at best 2-3 samples over 200 and many had none over 200. But, for one day, it was very nice to county corn that was that high. Where I currently live, the county average is about 275 each year, so I am used to counting high yielding corn there, but not in this part of the Midwest where there is very little irrigated ground.
The soybeans were also very good on this route with an average of about 1,400 pods in a 3’X3′ square. Tomorrow we finish up our tour by counting corn and beans in Southern Minnesota. We have to head due west to almost the South Dakota border, head up north about 100 miles and then wind our way down to Rochester on the other side of the state. It will be a long day, but it has been fun so far and I must admit a little easier than in prior years. We have more people doing routes and it breaks it up a bit.
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.
Comments are closed.