On day 3 of the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop tour, it's sinking in that these are great corn and soybean crops. The tour and nightly meetings are for farmers so you always hear more about just how bad the bad fields were than how good the great ones were since, for them, low prices are not a good thing. But, as we get into Iowa and have completed Illinois, we are really seeing the powerhouse of the Corn Belt. One scout sampled a field that calculated a corn yield above 300 bushels per acre. Soybeans have large pod counts with lots of big beans in them already and more than enough moisture to finish. My team sampled several fields in Iowa, not in the prime growing areas, and average yields were on par with last year’s total state average. Soybean fields were muddy and temperatures have been relatively cool so there is no concern of the usual August dryness. As the tour is wrapping up, we are seeing how the 175 bushels per acre corn yield estimate from the USDA is possible. Still, among some, opinion is that this number is too high. At the start of the tour, chatter was that the estimate was off significantly but now, conversations are more about how it is likely just a bushel or two too big.
