Day two of the Pro Farmer Crop Tour found its Western Scouts finishing up the state of Nebraska. Yesterday, we talked about the low numbers coming out of South Dakota. The scouts knew that Nebraska was probably going to see some lower numbers as well, given that the hot and dry weather was taking its toll on pollination.
While the numbers that came from Nebraska were better than what was in South Dakota, they weren?t good enough in comparison to normal Nebraska yields. The tour estimates Nebraska?s corn yield at 158.5 bushels per acre (bpa). That?s a thirteen percent drop from 2021?s numbers. Western Tour Lead Chip Flory talks about what they saw.
Short grain length was again the key to lower numbers. Just like in South Dakota, the ears were coming up short with an average of 6.62 inches. This is compared to the 7.15? from a year earlier. Flory says that the crop just gave up.
Nebraska has both irrigated and dryland crops. Usually, dryland puts up smaller numbers, but nobody expected a drop of 18% to 135.65.
On soybeans, the pod counts saw a 13% drop from 2021, coming in at 1,063.7. Flory said this seemed pretty close to what was expected.
Moisture is a big issue in the soybean crop. The soil moistures are down roughly 14 percent from the three-year average.
The tour travels through the Western third of Iowa today, while the Eastern tour finishes Illinois, and then enters Eastern and Central Iowa tomorrow.
