The 2020 Pro Farmer Crop Tour is underway! Scouts are stopping every 15-20 miles along their routes and following the below procedures for #corn and #soybeans. A rough corn yield calculation is also being made at every stop. #pftour20
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https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/us-crop-tour-to-give-insight-into-yield-and-storm-damage/
This is my route in South Dakota this morning. I'll be posting some pictures and results along the way.
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Have to drive almost 50 miles west on I-90 before we start to scout, and the stuff we can see from the highway looks about as good as I have ever seen in South Dakota (this is my 7th time on the western tour).
Four #corn stops in district 6 of South Dakota. Average (rough) yield 173.6 bu/acre. Past tour numbers in this district: 17-19 avg: 164.4 2018: 178.7
Sanborn, Davison, and Hutchinson counties in southeast South Dakota. #Soybeans are huge. #Corn really solid too though one pretty immature field. Area could use a rain but they aren't hurting either. #pftour20 Reminder, bean numbers is # of pods in 3 by 3 feet (0.84 sq meter)
Keep in mind when looking at that #corn yield that #pftour20 samples the higher-yielding southeast part of the state, so comparing these numbers directly with USDA can be misleading. There's a certain average adjustment that can be made with tour data (will post it later).
Im reading this as you are a member of this official team.
I had no idea,thought this was a government sponsored event,and maybe it is.
Tell us more.
How do you get on the team,sponsorship,qualifications,quality of the reports,etc.
Are you allowed to trade this info or would that be considered insider info.
Interesting mm!
John
Hi John,
I'm just passing along tweets from this person that provides massive wonderful information (especially graphically/pictorially) about grains which I have copied here for over a year.
My route today on #pftour20 in Nebraska. We are headed 100 miles out of Grand Island east to Wahoo, where we will start sampling.
We will be sampling in district 6, which is the east central district of Nebraska.
Duh
Thanks mcfarm!
I'll be starting in the D3 drought zone:
My route in Western Iowa for day 3 of #pftour20. We are driving this morning and will start checking fields just south of Perry (2nd half of route).
Pro Farmer's average production estimates for #corn and #soybeans are below those of USDA.
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Pro Farmer estimates U.S. #corn yield at a record 177.5 bu/acre, but 4.3 bpa below USDA’s number. Iowa at 180 bpa would be the lowest since 2013. Pro Farmer’s projection incorporates data from #pftour20 and other items such as crop maturity.
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#Soybeans 52.5 bu/acre
I have posted this before and I am sticking to my story
I am convinced that china has suffered crop failure over a wide area and food security is now an issue
I won't repeat all the crop problems, with grain production in china, previously posted on the forum
If china was importing normal amounts then they certainly would not buy from the USA considering all the tensions with USA/china disputes, especially in the south seas, HK and Taiwan
A few pennies saved on a bu of grain due to USD value does not mean much when china is in a cold war with the USA
China is buying USA grain because they have to, plain and simple, and USA grain is on sale, compared to china domestic food/grain prices. China has even bought some meat, thus all signs point to a grain shortage from more than usual crop failure, that will happen most yrs, some place in china
Look for more purchases from china to appear as time goes by. Perhaps the pace will slow down but increased sales of USA grain will continue, and it isn't because of any Phase One agreement which they did not intend to honor, until their domestic crops failed. They will buy only what they need and no more.
Thanks Wayne!
I agree with you.
Also, the August USDA crop report will serve as the highest production number of the year, with high confidence.
1. Dryness in key areas during the last few weeks has lowered yields by a couple of bushels. This is the key pod filling time frame for beans.
2. Crop ratings dropped 2% last week from the previous week and will be down another couple % next Monday.
3. The Derecho event completely wiped out several % of IA's corn crop.
4. There will be modest heat fill for corn kernels coming up the next week. This is going to cause some lower test weights/lower yields than ideal temps. However, offsetting that, is the temperature map below. Temperatures the past 30 days have been pretty favorable for kernel filling, with little "heat fill" as I was expecting earlier in the Summer.
