The 2014 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour that started Monday has yielded an expected improvement of crop conditions as it moved from Ohio west into Indiana and then Illinois by Tuesday. Ty Higgins is a farm broadcaster with Ohio Ag Net and he told HAT at midday on the second day there has been an improvement in the corn and soybeans within Indiana as you move east to west.
“We did see some variation but I will tell you we did see plant health improve immensely from Monday. It just seemed like this crop got quite a bit more moisture. In fact, there are still a couple of puddles on some gravel roads and we weren’t kicking up any dust behind us, so they’ve gotten rain overnight in that part of the state and you can tell that those timely rains are going to help.”
Higgins’ leg of the eastern tour is one of twelve that made its way through the state and his group started Tuesday near Fishers and angled northwest through Carroll, Tippecanoe and Benton Counties. During their 7 Indiana stops corn yield totaled 183.59 bushels per acre. The average pod count was 1284.45.
The annual tour results are studied closely and the confirmation of good soybeans throughout the tour pressured the soybean market Tuesday, according to analyst Arlan Suderman.
He said the trade wanted to know, “Were the pods actually there. Well the crop tour has confirmed so far at least through the first day and a half, yes the pods are there and the crop ratings at a time when they’re normally going down, are going up, and that’s before most of the Midwest has received this week’s anticipated rains. So that’s just given them the confidence to go ahead and sell the market right now.”
Suderman is Senior Market Analyst for Water Street Solutions.
As the Higgins tour group started their Illinois stops he noted the beans were tall and pod counts were at times over 1300, but corn ears were small and yields might be disappointing for some of those farmers right past the Indiana-Illinois state line.
(Pictures courtesy of Ohio Ag Net)