2015 US Corn Belt Crop Tour: Final findings & summary

Tour wrap up

By Diego Flammini, Farms.com

After nearly a month on the road and thousands of miles traveled, the 4^th annual Farms.com US Corn Belt Crop Tour has come to an end.

From June 26^th to July 11^th, Moe Agostino, Farms.com Risk Management’s Chief Commodity Strategist and his team started in Ohio and made their way through Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South and North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin before finishing off in Michigan.

Agostino ranked six observations from the tour as the most important.

1. American farmers did not plant all of the intended acres; and between 1 and 3 million soybean acres will not get planted due to excessive moisture
2. The excessive moisture caused farmers problems with side dressing and 7/10 admitted to applying less nutrients
3. Many crops are between 1 and 4 weeks behind
4. No record production on the horizon for 2015 and the USDA’s July numbers do not reflect the current conditions
5. East vs. West – East is too wet, but the West is not a garden
6. By July 11^th, 2014, 9 of 12 states had tasseled corn compared to only 4/12 in 2015.

Here are some other highlights from the tour:

• Wheat, canola and barley were the best looking crops on the tour
• For every good field there were seven or eight in bad shape
• Wildfires from Western Canada were causing South Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota to lose growing degree days
• Very little disease pressure – only some striped rust in corn
• Only in Melvern, Kansas could corn be pulled and counted

Join the conversation and tell us if you followed along on the Corn Belt Crop Tour. What is your reactions to some of the findings and highlights from the tour?