The first leg of the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour’s eastern leg took us through Western Ohio and Eastern Illinois, with cars traveling from Columbus, OH to Indianapolis, IN.
Over 50 crop scouts spread out to cover as many counties as possible in this main producing region.
The national crop is known to be a good one and the USDA has already pegged this crop at record production and yield levels, but the question mark is Ohio.
While much of the Corn Belt was hot earlier in the summer, many other states received timely rains that would help development during July but Ohio did not.
For Ohio, most expected huge variations in samples with some good fields of corn and soybeans and several with major problems.
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The fields that we sampled directly west of Columbus were varied, but were not all that bad.
However, some other scouts reported more issues further north. All-in-all, the market's expectation for a not ideal crop in Ohio were in line with reality.
The tour's Ohio yield estimate for corn was 148.96 bushels per acre, which is clearly well below the USDA's national average of 175.1.
Hopes are high as we head west, with fields in Illinois and Iowa expected to be huge.
