Pro Farmer crop tour day 4: Minnesota looks best

Yield indications for corn and soybeans in Minnesota point to a better-than-expected harvest for the state, while the final picture for Iowa was mixed on the fourth and final day of the US Pro Farmer crop tour.

The two halves of the tour starting in Spencer, Iowa, and Riverside, Iowa, moved north to converge in Rochester, Minnesota, on Thursday to conclude the US crop survey.

The results from the Minnesota portion of the tour were favorable for the state's corn and soybean harvest outlook. Forecast corn yields exceeded the three-year average by 8.7pc at 199.01 bushels (bu) per acre, and exceeded the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) estimate of 197 bu/acre.

The soybean portion of the Minnesotan survey resulted in pod counts — measured as the number of pods in a 3ft-by-3ft plot —at 1,257.8, up by 15pc from the three-year average, while the USDA's current yield estimate of 48 bu/acres exceeds the three-year average by only 0.7pc.

The final forecast for Iowa's corn yield was at 193.98 bu/acre.up by 1.4pc from the three-year average. But this expected gain would still place yields in the state 2.2pc below last year's tour results, and well below the record 216 bu/acre currently forecast by the USDA.

The tour's results for Iowa's soybean crop were more in line with the current USDA projection, with pod counts observed at 1,362.93, down by 1.6pc from the three-year average, and consistent with the current USDA yield forecast of 62 bu/acre.

Crops improve as the tour moves north

Moving into Minnesota, fewer observations of crop disease and under pollination were reported, but the current drought did make itself apparent in the corn crop.

While fewer incidents of tip-back were reported in the surveyed corn acres, ear lengths were generally shorter than anticipated due to drought this season. The soybean crop had less evidence of drought, with the condition of the crop improving from fields surveyed in western Iowa and Nebraska.

Reports of disease presence in both crops were far fewer than in the states surveyed earlier in the tour, withfewerreports of weed pressure as well. But soil conditions were generally drier-than-optimal for this point in the year, with limited reports of browning crops and small areas of nitrogen deficiently observed.

While both the corn and soybean crops were in overall better condition than in the previous states surveyed,it was noted that soybean yields in particular would benefit from some additional rain ahead of harvest this fall.

By Alexander Schultz and Ryan Koory