Ag consultancy Doane says the first day of its crop tour found corn and soybeans in outstanding condition in western Illinois and eastern Iowa. “We believe it’s the strongest corn crop we have observed in our long history of this crop tour,” says its report. Doane says corn yields in western Illinois could be 10 bushels an acre higher than last year. “Yield potential in east central Iowa looks equally as strong as western Illinois with our field checks near the 200 bushel per acre mark.” For soybeans, yield prospects in western Illinois are the best ever. The tour is to cover Iowa, eastern Nebraska and southern Minnesota this week.
Meanwhile, crop scouts assessing the hard red spring wheat crop in North Dakota found high yield potential in fields in the southern part of the state. Conditions pointed to an average yield of 48.1 bushels an acre, said DTN, the best in five years, according to the head of the Wheat Quality Council, the tour organizer.