Production Blog

Final Take on the 2013 Crop Tour

Ear tip back is likely with continued dryness in Midwest corn fields. Some hybrids tip back naturally under high populations, but this year kernel abortion is the more likely reason. (DTN photo by Pamela Smith)

DECATUR, Ill. (DTN) -- Will Rogers once said that the farmer has to be an optimist or he wouldn't still be a farmer. I thought about that quote last week as I shared a pickup ride with Steve Holthaus, an Ossian, Iowa, farmer who endured the prolonged wet spring and is now biting his nails as some of his corn crop struggles toward maturity.

We were participating in the 2013 Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour and while the samples we pulled for that event are typically random, our route took us through Holthaus' home turf. Throughout the Midwest, maturity of the crop -- or lack of it -- became a predominate theme. We could only guess at the planting date, inputs and operations post planting with most of the fields. A stop with Holthaus in tow became opportunity to learn based on reality.

Holthaus spends the bulk of his time outfitting planters with precision technology and helping other farmers achieve picket fence stands. He pointed out how mudding in a crop affected stands this year. Peering into his field also let us look a little into his heart. We'd passed field after field of prevented planting to get here. Holthaus could have walked away May 30, but he rolled the dice and planted some of his acreage as late as June 3. On the acres he did leave idle, we saw evidence of terraces and other field improvements in progress.

Will the crop make it? I asked him this simple question as we measured ears pulled from his field that were barely at the blister stage. Silks still clung to the tips of the ears. "God, I hope so," he said. "I knew it was a risk, but all we as farmers want to do is grow a crop. It's what we do. It's who we are," he said.

We measured a potential yield on his field of 235.86 bpa -- potential being the word of importance, because the crop has a long way to go and a short time to get there. The average first frost date for this area is the first week in October.

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As we crossed the state line and headed into Minnesota, we continued to find crops that appeared beautiful from the road, but were immature and exhibited spotty stands once we'd gone through the paces. Scouts are instructed to get beyond the end rows and then walk 35 yards before pulling a sample. We found a few fields that were just beginning to tassel.

Likewise, soybeans were mostly green and gorgeous from the road. Those lush stands were so deceiving though. Pod counts were typically lowest on the most promising of fields and many were still blooming.

It rained on us the final day of the tour and washed off a lot of dust from the previous days of scouting Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Illinois in particular, was bone dry and agronomists on the tour were worried about ear tip back.

Looking back on the experience, I realize how few pest pressures we saw. Adult rootworms were more apparent in fields that were obvious to be corn after corn. I found myself covered in aphids after pulling samples in one Minnesota soybean field. There were reports of some sudden death syndrome (SDS) in northern Indiana. Still, pests were relatively light across the Midwest.

Maturity and hanging onto potential yield are the issues this year. Obviously, there are exceptions to every rule, but most of the corn we found was between R3 (milk stage) and early R5 (early dent). The range of planting dates this spring has led to variation in development stages, resulting in many different kinds of weather impacts.

The heat units have nudged up a notch -- causing one of my Iowa farmer friends to tweet: "We need a slow cooker, not a convection oven."

It's likely we're going to see those later-planted fields with higher harvest moistures. Our crop tour doesn't measure test weight and that will undoubtedly be a factor this year.

Holthaus got back home to Iowa to find his June-planted field had received 1.9 inches of rain in his absence. "I'll take that -- along with the 95-degree temperatures we're currently having," he said in a phone interview. He noted that some fields in the vicinity were flat after 60 mph winds. Perhaps it was insect or hybrid related, but his fields dodged that disaster.

As Yogi Berra said, "It ain't over 'til it's over." After a week of looking at crops, the best I can say is, it's too soon to project yields and it's still too soon to predict gloom and doom.

Pamela Smith can be reached at Pamela.smith@telventdtn.com

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