Midwest Crop Tour – Final Day

Since I had a meeting in Austin, Minnesota today at 3 pm, I had to miss taking corn and bean counts for the day.  After taking counts yesterday for almost 12 hours straight, I actually did not mind the rest.

Also, during yesterday’s route, I ended up cutting two of my fingers with a corn stalk leaf and to use a farm term, bled like a “stuck hog”.  The other scout in the corn field did not do well with the sight of human blood, so I was running out of the field dripping blood all the way.  We got it cleaned and bandaged and since I seem to get a tetanus shoot every five years or so (I have way too many scars on my body to keep track of), I am fairly sure I will be fine.

Tonight, we had the recap of the corp tour with the meet up of the western and eastern legs of the crop tour in Austin, Minnesota.  A crowd of easily 400 farmers and more than 500 people total found out that the estimated corn crop for both Minnesota and Iowa will be down from last year.  Remember that this is the estimated biological crop.  The actual harvested crop per acre will be down probably even more due to all of the wind, hail, and maturity issues involved with this year’s crop.

The chance of this year’s crop being higher than the August 1 USDA estimate, in my opinion, is somewhere between slim and none.  We shall see.

Tomorrow is a travel day home and I will be posting again next week.