Pro Farmer Tour Finds ‘Spectacular’ US Soybean Crop

Pro Farmer Editors reported on Friday that “Pro Farmer estimates the U.S. corn crop at 14.979 billion bushels using an average yield of 181.1 bushels per acre. We estimate the U.S. soybean crop at 4.740 billion bushels at an average yield of 54.9 bushels per acre.”

“The national estimates above reflect Pro Farmer’s view on production and yields,” Pro Farmer Editors wrote. “They take into account data gathered during Crop Tour and other factors like crop maturity, historical differences in Tour data versus USDA’s final yields, areas outside those sampled on Tour, etc.”

Some Records Projected

Reuters’ Julie Ingwersen and Karen Braun reported that “Iowa’s corn yield potential set a new record high for the Pro Farmer Crop Tour while excessive June rains drove Minnesota’s corn yield prospects to the lowest levels since 2012, scouts on an annual tour of top U.S. production states found on Thursday.”

“The tour projected Iowa’s corn yield at 192.79 bushels per acre (bpa), well above the 2023 tour average of 182.80 bpa for the largest U.S. corn state and above the tour’s three-year average of 185.79 bpa,” Ingwersen and Braun reported. “But in Minnesota, the fourth-largest corn producer, the tour projected yield at 164.90 bpa, far below last year’s estimate of 181.34 bpa and the three-year average of 183.06.”

“In Iowa and much of the Midwest, crops benefited from near-ideal weather,” Ingwersen and Braun reported. “‘Generally we’ve seen good growing conditions, and it shows,’ said Brian Grete, Pro Farmer editor and leader of the tour’s eastern leg. ‘An early frost would be the one thing that could derail it.'”

“Minnesota was an exception,” Ingwersen and Braun reported. “‘The corn crop is going to struggle to make the finish line. They have seen too much excess rainfall this season, which has washed away the fertilizer,’ said Scott German, a North Dakota farmer who was on the tour. Yet Minnesota’s soybeans fared better. The tour, which does not project soybean yields, estimated the number of soybean pods in a 3-ft by 3-ft (91-cm by 91-cm) square in Minnesota at an average of 1,036.59 pods, above last year’s average of 985.00 pods and close to the three-year average of 1,037.70 pods.”

State-By-State Corn Estimates

Pro Farmer Editors reported that “‘the first two days of the tour all we did was move bushels from South Dakota and Nebraska to Ohio and Indiana compared with USDA estimates,’ says Chip Flory, host of AgriTalk. ‘We had laid the groundwork for a really good crop in Iowa, but in northwest Iowa, we ran into problems, which we anticipated after too much rain during the planting season. In our final day running the routes, we’ve got a nice crop in Iowa, but Minnesota is another story.'”

“On the eastern side of the Corn Belt, Grete and fellow scouts found a strong corn crop,” Pro Farmer Editors reported. “‘USDA put a record yield on corn for five of the seven states,’ he says. ‘Ohio isn’t one of those — but if we weren’t talking about last year’s record crop in Ohio, this year would be up there. This year is comparing to last year’s gold standard.'”

State-By-State Soybean Estimates

Pro Farmer Editors reported that “‘soybeans could be spectacular as long as there isn’t a weather event that derails the crop ahead of harvest,’ Grete says. ‘Typically, there’s some concern with either the corn crop, soybean crop or both coming out of Crop Tour. There aren’t concerns this year.'”