CLARINDA, Iowa, Aug 23 (Reuters) – Corn yield potential in southwestern Iowa is down sharply from a year ago and well below average, scouts found on Wednesday as part of a crop tour that is keenly watched for early indications on the harvest.
Soybean pod counts were also below 2016 but above the average seen by the tour in the last three years.
Scouts, including traders and agricultural economists, calculated corn yields at 156.96 bushels per acre in surveys from 10 fields taken along one route that tracked through Fremont, Page, Taylor, Ringgold, and Union counties.
A year ago, scouts in the same area pegged corn yields at 195.6 bushels per acre. The tour’s three-year average for the area is 174.3 bushels per acre.
Dry conditions stressed the corn in western stretches of the state throughout June and July, key development periods for the crop when harvest size is determined.
“Some of these guys could not buy a rain all summer and then lately it has shifted,” said Matt Bennett, a producer from Illinois who runs Bennett Consulting, which advises growers. “(But) I do not think the western part can catch up on corn yields.”
Bennett said crop conditions were expected to worsen as the route moved into fields in the south-central portion of the state.Analysts and traders are closely eyeing tour results from Iowa, which the U.S. Agriculture Department has forecast will harvest 17.4% of U.S. corn and 12.7% of soybeans this season.
A big Iowa crop could add to pressure on prices and threaten farmers’ ability to book a profit on this year’s crop. A massive global supply of grains has weighed heavily on markets.
Scouts do not estimate soybean yields but instead calculate the number of pods in 3×3-foot (91-×91-cm) plots to gauge yield potential.
Soybean pod counts on the route averaged 1,277.90, compared with 1,460.40 in 2016 but above the tour’s three-year average of 1,252.46.
On another route farther north and east that made stops in Crawford, Carroll, and Sac counties, corn yields averaged 183.08 bushels per acre and soybean pod counts 1,246.95.
A third route that had made three stops in Sac County found average corn yields at 130.3 bushels per acre and soybean pod counts around 750.
Tour scouts survey fields in South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio over a four-day period this week. Pro Farmer, a news and marketing wing of the Farm Journal, will release its estimates of U.S. crop production on Friday. (Reporting by Mark Weinraub; Editing by James Dalgleish)