Mid West Crop Tour

Pro Farmer conducts a Mid West Crop Tour each year.  There are two legs to the tour.  The Eastern Leg starts in Columbus, Ohio this Sunday night and on Monday, about 11 routes are conducted from Columbus to Fishers, Indiana.  These routes will go over the exact same roads as in previous years, however, the fields scouted will be at random.  We usually stop about every 15-20 miles to get a sample and try to get at least one sample in every county.  Tuesday, we go from Fishers to Bloomington, Indiana.  On Wednesday, we head over to Iowa City, Iowa and then finally head up to Rochester, Minnesota where we finish the tour.

The Western Leg starts in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, goes the first day to Grand Island, Nebraska.  The second day scouts the rest of Eastern Nebraska and ends up in Nebraska City, Nebraska.  On the third, day we head up to Spencer, Iowa catching all of Western Iowa and on the last day catch Southern Minnesota and meet up with the Eastern Leg at Rochester.

Each night, there is presentation to local farmers on the results of the tour and Pro Farmer will report their estimated yields for each section they cover during that day, etc.

I have participated on the Crop Tour for the last four years and this year will be my fifth tour.  This really comprises my summer vacation (I know some of you think that is a sick way of doing a summer vacation, but there are enough of you out there to understand my addiction).

The participation by the scouts on Twitter has gotten greater each year and due to the large anticipated crop this year, I am expecting the Twitter feeds to be at an all time high.  If you want to follow my Tweets, my Twitter handle is @FarmCPA and the Hash Tag should be #pftour14.  If that is not correct, I will post an update.

I should be posting a recap of each day as it occurs.  Sometimes, the evening activities get a little hectic and I might not post until the following morning, but I will keep you updated next week.

Paul Neiffer, CPA