First Day of the Midwest Crop Tour
We left Columbus, Ohio this morning at 7 am and headed west. It was tough going the first couple of hours with the suburbs and humidity cloud to get any samples in, but we finally got some samples. Our lowest of the day was 53 bushels in Drake County but as usual on the crop tour, our best sample at 218 was in Mercer County, our next stop. Our overall yield for Ohio was about 145 bushels per acre which probably put us at the lowest average for the day.
Pro Farmer called the Ohio crop at 171.64 based upon all of the data collected. The number of ears, length and rows were all up substantially from last year (which is expected) and the final number is very close to the USDA number from last Monday. My observations are that unless this region gets rain soon, it will not fill all the way to this number. The rain is especially needed for beans. We had a several fields with large cracks in the dirt and one crack was about an inch wide and at least 8 inches deep.
The soybeans looked OK, with Pro Farmer calling the average pod count at 1284 for Ohio. Our average was 1289 so we tracked that fairly closely.
Our counts for Indiana for District 6 were about 153 bushels per acre and bean counts were in the 1,178 range.
On the Western Leg, the scouts came up with an average of about 162 bushels per acre for South Dakota which would be a record of close to it, however, the maturity level is behind and it will need help to get to that final number. Their bean count was also up from last year.
Tomorrow, we head due west towards Bloomington, Illinois. I think my route is fairly direct, but many scouts will put on close to 400 miles before the day is over. Following the crop tour on Twitter is very easy if you follow the conversation at #PFTour13.
More tomorrow.
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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