Nebraska’s corn crop is showing the effects of heat stress and fewer ears per acre, according to scouts with the Pro Farmer Crop Tour.
After spending a day and a half sampling fields across Nebraska, Pro Farmer estimates the state’s corn yield at 163.61 bushels per acre. That’s down 8.85% from last year’s crop tour estimate and 5.6% below the three-year average.
Quick Read
- Nebraska corn yield is pegged at 163.61 bushels per acre, down nearly 9% from last year and 5.6% below the three-year average.
- Heat stress and fewer ears are the biggest problems, with Pro Farmer finding Nebraska’s lowest ear count since 2013.
- Soybeans are holding closer to average, with pod counts down 9.5% from last year but just 0.6% below the three-year average.
Chip Flory, who leads the western leg of the tour, says the biggest concern was ear count.
“We found out that we’ve got the lowest ear count on tour since 2013 in Nebraska,” Flory says.
Scouts found significant tip-back in dryland corn, particularly in northeast Nebraska, with heat and high nighttime temperatures taking a toll. Flory says some areas went seven consecutive nights without temperatures falling below 72 degrees.
Fewer ears weren’t the only factor. Grain length also declined from last year, another sign of heat stress.
Tim Gregerson of Herman, who has participated in the crop tour for 26 years, says he saw evidence of drought and heat stress in northeast Nebraska, along with some insect pressure.
“Northern rootworm beetle in corn is what we’re seeing,” Gregerson says, noting some fields had enough beetles to clip silks and potentially affect pollination.
Disease pressure, however, is much lighter than it was a year ago. Scouts found some tar spot, gray leaf spot, northern corn leaf blight and other diseases, but little southern rust compared with last summer’s widespread outbreak.
Soybeans are telling a somewhat different story.
Pro Farmer’s Nebraska soybean pod count came in at 1,219.6 pods in a three-foot-by-three-foot area. That’s 9.5% below last year but only 0.6% below the three-year average.
Flory calls it an average soybean crop, but says recent rain gives the crop an opportunity to finish.
“The difference after what we experienced on Tuesday morning with the rain and the thunderstorms and some hail in some areas, we’ve got some moisture for this crop to go ahead and finish,” Flory says.
The soybean crop is also running a little behind last year, with Pro Farmer’s maturity rating showing plants are still flowering and producing pods in parts of Nebraska.
Osceola farmer Jesse Williams, making his first crop tour, says the tour provides a valuable look at what’s actually happening in fields.
“I think it’s going to be about the most boots-on-the-ground thing that you can look at,” Williams says.
Pro Farmer scouts continue into western Iowa Wednesday, where Flory says ear counts will again be a major focus as the tour evaluates whether Iowa can live up to expectations for a potentially record crop.
