Monday was day one of the 2014 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour and the eastern tour group cut a swath from central Ohio to central Indiana before calling it a day. Twelve groups of crop scouts made the trip and nearly 60 participants were involved. One of this is Ohio farm broadcaster Ty Higgins from the Ohio Ag Net and he shared details of first day averages for estimated corn yield in Indiana.
“As far as my route we’re looking at an average of 186.2 bushels per acre. We measure beans in a 3 foot by 3 foot square and count the pods in that area, and we got an average of 1168 for the Hoosier state. I will tell you the yields are there. We saw everything from 165 to 205, but we did see a lot of dry ground as well, a lot of cracks. One crack I can recall was an inch thick and about 8 inches deep.”
He told HAT the yield is there for now as the ears are good now, but “if you do not get rain in the state, at least the east central part of the state in the next couple of days to a week, we’re going to start seeing some tip back on those ears and yield loss because of that in the weeks to come.”
Higgins said the key word in Ohio this year is variation and that was in plain site Monday. The corn average was 168.2 bushels per acre for the Ohio corn fields and 1037 pods in a 3 x 3 square of soybeans.
The Tuesday tour picks up in central Indiana and moves west across the state and into Illinois.
(Photo caption: Emporia, Indiana was our last stop and we once again found some ground that could use a drink soon. The beans had a higher pop but a lower pod count below 1000. The corn had the biggest ears we have seen today, but the field overall had some pockets of baron stalks. By the looks of the ears it should have been over 200, but the ear count brought our number down to 154 bushels per acre)
HAT thanks Ty Higgins and Ohio Ag Net for the update and photo. Hear more from Ty here:Ty tour update 1