pro farmer crop tour 2023 schedule

Welcome to the 2023 Pro Farmer Crop Tour, a one-of-a-kind event that brings together farmers from across the Midwest and leaders throughout agriculture. This marks the 31st year that Crop Tour will provide the industry with accurate late-season growing information about likely corn and soybean yields.

MEDIA CAN ATTEND NIGHTLY MEETINGS Members of the media are invited to attend Pro Farmer Crop Tour nightly meetings, which are scheduled in locations throughout the tour route. These meetings are attended by local farmers and include scouting reports and yield estimates for that day. Please REGISTER with discount code 23MEDIA for a complimentary ticket.

EASTERN TOUR

August 21 – Noblesville, IN Embassy Suites Noblesville Indianapolis Conference Center 13700 Conference Center Drive South Noblesville, IN 46060 *note all times above are CST. This location takes place 1 hour later.

August 22 – Bloomington, IL DoubleTree by Hilton 10 Brickyard Drive Bloomington, IL 61701

August 23 – Iowa City, IA Hyatt Regency Coralville 300 East 9th Street Coralville, IA 52241

August 24 – Rochester, MN Mayo Civic Center 30 Civic Center Drive SE Rochester, MN 55902 

WESTERN TOUR

August 21 – Grand Island, NE TBD

August 22 – Nebraska City, NE Lied Lodge and Conference Center 2700 Sylvan Road Nebraska City, NE 68410

August 23– Spencer, IA Clay County Fair and Events Center 800 West 18th Street Spencer, IA 51301  

August 24 – Rochester, MN Mayo Civic Center 30 Civic Center Drive SE Rochester, MN 55902

Media Information

Primary Media Contacts: Susan Rhode, Director of Marketing, Farm Journal (913) 213-7110 or [email protected] Joe May, Marketing Director, Pro Farmer (319) 883-9616 or [email protected]

Media Resources: Additional media resources and information are available at www.profarmer.com/media

Official Event Name: Pro Farmer Crop Tour

Please refer to the event as "Pro Farmer Crop Tour" on first reference and as "Crop Tour” on subsequent references

Pro Farmer is owned by Farm Journal

Pro Farmer Crop Tour is hosted in partnership with Farm Journal

Daily Data Release Schedule—Eastern Tour

Monday, August 21 — Final data available for Ohio Tuesday, August 22 — Final data available for Indiana Wednesday, August 23 — Final data available for Illinois Thursday, August 24 — Final data available for Iowa and Minnesota

Nightly Meetings/Data Release Schedule—Western Tour

Monday, August 21 — Final data available for South Dakota Tuesday, August 22 — Final data available for Nebraska. Wednesday, August 23 — Final data available for IA districts 1, 4 & 7 Thursday, August 24 — Final data available for Iowa and Minnesota

Pro Farmer National Crop Production Estimates

Friday, August 25 — Release available at 1:30 pm CST All interested media can make arrangements with Brian Grete to receive the estimates (embargoed for release at 1:30 p.m. CT).

Friday's Pro Farmer National Crop Production estimate is not a Crop Tour estimate — it is a Pro Farmer estimate. While Pro Farmer obviously uses the data collected on the Pro Farmer Crop Tour and this data obviously plays a huge role in determining the estimate, Pro Farmer’s editors and analysts also consider other factors, such as crop maturity, soil moisture conditions, disease/pest infestation and prospects outside the tour area in arriving at the crop estimate. Because late-season weather can still impact final yields, the Pro Farmer crop estimate will be given in a range of production potential.

Calculation of Statistics: Corn yields are calculated using a consistent data set: ear populations, grain length in

inches, kernel rows around the ear and row spacing in each field.

Soybean yields are not estimated because two extremely important variables—number of seeds per pod and seed weight—are impossible to measure on a tour of this type. Scouts calculate the number of pods in a 3-foot by 3-foot square — 9 square feet. The pod count allows for comparison to previous tours and helps determine how much of the “bean-making factory” is in production.

District averages are a simple average of all samples collected within that district.

State averages are a simple average of all samples collected within the state.

Historical Statistics:

Historical district averages are a simple average of all the samples collected within that district in that state.

Historical state averages are a simple average of all samples collected in that state for that year.

The 3-year average for each district is a simple average of the previous three years’ (2018 thru 2020) district averages.

The 3-year average for each state is a simple average of the previous three years’ (2018 thru 2020) state averages.

Crop Tour Historical Facts:

• The tour has been organized and hosted by Pro Farmer since 1993 • Farm Journal purchased Pro Farmer and joined the event in 1998 • Prior to 1993, the tour was organized by various organizations • Immediately preceding Pro Farmer, the tour was directed by Jim Quinton, who was an independent crop consultant/advisor. • The tour was started in the 1970s by the Illinois Corn Growers. • The same procedures are used each year to make year-to-year comparisons relevant and useful.

About Crop Tour

The Pro Farmer Crop Tour’s primary goal is to provide the industry with accurate growing season information about likely corn and soybean production potential at the state and regional levels during the upcoming harvest season.

Crop Tour’s data-gathering methods are disciplined, and time tested, producing consistent results. The Tour’s crop scouts, especially the new ones, receive formal instruction before the Tour and training from Tour veterans along the way. Results from the Tour have a big impact on Pro Farmer Newsletter’s annual crop production estimate released at week’s end. But observations gathered during the Tour can be just as important as the data itself.

“We pull enough samples to provide us with accurate data for a large geographic area. Crop Tour does not attempt to predict actual yields for individual fields or even a county. Instead, we are trying to gauge production potential across the Corn Belt. The best number we have at the end of the week is the average from all of the roughly 1,500 corn and 1,500 soybean samples we measure during the week,” says Pro Farmer Editor Brian Grete.

“USDA’s corn and soybean crop ratings show there’s a great divide between those areas where rains have been prevalent and the areas that have been dry,” says Brian Grete. “Crop Tour will give us a first-hand look at whether the good areas are enough to compensate for the poorer locations. This is a service we provide to the industry, and anyone with interest can tune into our live-streamed coverage each night of the Tour.”

“Soybean yields are always difficult to forecast because the relationship of pod counts to yields varies quite a bit from state to state,” Grete explains. “Plus, weather after Tour is critical to how the soybean crop finishes. But pod counts gathered on Crop Tour usually provide us with good perspective on the soybean crop’s yield ‘factory.’

Pro Farmer has been conducting the Midwest Crop Tour since 1993. Early Tours focused on Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota and Ohio, with Nebraska and South Dakota added in 1998. Together, the seven states that make up the Tour account for about 70% of our nation’s corn and soybean production.

Pro Farmer Crop Tour Strives to Stay “Consistently Random.”

The Tour stays consistent by traveling the third week of August every year, by traveling the same routes every year and by using the same sampling procedure in every field.

The randomness of the Tour is actually “planned randomness.” It’s achieved by not

predetermining which fields will be sampled and by allowing each team to select the location in the field. But it doesn’t end there: More planned randomness is added by walking 35 paces down the main rows to the sample location. (When scouts start walking into a corn field, there’s no way to tell what will be about 35 yards beyond the end rows.) Even the ear selection is consistently random. By pulling the fifth, eighth and 11th ear from one sample row, scouts might pull the three best, or three worst, ears from the row.

That’s a lot of investigation ... but how do you use it? There is only one way to use data collected on the Pro Farmer Crop Tour—compare the current results to past Tours. That comparison has proven to yield the most reliable analysis of fresh data.

We’ve studied and analyzed thousands of samples over 25 years of touring, and we’ve calculated the “historical error” of the Tour data. Simply put, we know the Tour results will be different than USDA’s final yield estimate for each state. Fortunately, we know which states the Tour measures “high” or “low,” and we know, on average, by how much. That allows us to adjust Tour results to produce a more reliable yield estimate when the Pro Farmer crop estimates are released following completion of the Tour.

When you hear results from the Tour, don’t just compare them to USDA’s August Crop Production report. Compare Tour results to the previous year’s results to figure how much bigger or smaller average yields will be.

Daily results, data and observations will be available on www.profarmer.com

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©2024 Farm Journal, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Pro Farmer Crop Tour - Day 4

Eastern & Western Routes - Thursday August 24

Eastern route - day 4.

• Begins in Iowa City, Iowa.
• Ends in Rochester, Minnesota.
• Monday - Day 1
• Tuesday - Day 2
• Wednesday - Day 3

Western Route - Day 4

• Begins in Spencer, Iowa.

Leader - Jay Zielske, Pioneer Field Agronomist, Southeast Minnesota

• Corn currently experiencing significant drought stress across much of the area … worst since 1988.
• Season began with heavy rains and saturated soils in May with large areas requiring replant.
• Soybean diseases have been minimal to date however impact of soybean cyst nematode (SCN) has been felt.
• Soybean crop stands to benefit more so from rain that finally returned in early August.
• Find more updates & photos .

Crop Conditions - Southeast Minnesota

- Jay Zielske

Weather Challenges

• Some years more unusual than others.
• Cold wet May resulted in prolonged saturated soils resulting in near record amount of corn replant.
• Late May rain shut off, and conditions switched to the most severe drought for many since 1988.
• Drought has been the chief concern throughout the summer in southern and south-central Minnesota.
• Stabilizing and salvaging the corn crop.
• Soybeans better positioned to capitalize on August rains.
• Dry weather for much of the season led to significantly less Tar Spot .
• Corn rootworm diapause replaced tar spot as corn farmer’s biggest concern.
• Soil samples taken for SCN showed 60% of fields with high to very high levels.
• Pioneer® brand A-Series Enlist E3® soybean varieties with PEKING are performing well.
• Enlist E3 soybeans is THE DOMINANT soybean technology.

Looking Ahead to Harvest

• Drought stressed crop is likely to race to the finish.
• Farmers should not waste time getting the crop out of the field.
• Phantom yield loss is real.

Disease Challenge - Tar Spot

Quoting colleague Josh Shofner:

"You can’t fungicide your way out of Tar Spot.”

• Dry weather conditions throughout much of the area kept tar spot largely in check.
• Return to more normal weather conditions will likely bring a return to tar spot in 2024.
• Tar spot management begins with hybrid selection.
• Timely fungicide applications

However ...

Extended diapause of corn rootworm replaced tar spot in the headlines going into 2023.

• Extended diapause and damage to first year corn from northern corn rootworm is back with a vengeance.
• First year corn without a below ground rootworm trait or insecticide fell victim to heavy rootworm pressure.
• High adult beetle populations in 2021 and back-to-back mild winters resulted in high survival rates and heavy pressure.
• Pioneer ® brand Qrome ® products fared well under rootworm pressure in 2023 … looking to the future we’re eager to rollout Pioneer ® brand Vorceed™ Enlist ® products .
• VORCEED Enlist ® technology provides the yield/insect protection / weed control options farmers are looking for.
• Looking ahead to 2024 whether it be tar spot or extended diapause, Pioneer is positioned to be the LEADER for both challenges.

Rootworm injury to non-rootworm traited hybrid.

Soybean Cyst Nematode

Populations continue to build.

• Dry weather has resulted in minimal disease pressure thus far.
• With dry weather the impact of Soybean Cyst Nematode has been magnified.
• Nearly 60% of those fields showed high to very high populations even where resistant varieties have been planted.
• Indication that reliance on PI88788 source of resistance is not enough.
• Pioneer continues to have success with PEKING source in our A-Series Enlist E3® varieties.

Pioneer Agronomy Manager Mary Gumz

Pioneer Portfolio Marketing Leader for Corn - Adam Theis

What’s Next in Pioneer Corn

Social and Apps

Tour updates on social:.

Follow Pioneer Instagram Stories. Follow Twitter. (#PFTour23)

Apps and Tools:

Visit the GDU Calculator. Visit the Corn Yield Estimator.

Get more information from Pro Farmer.

My Local Pioneer Team

Our unmatched team of local professionals live and work in your community. They’re ready to help you select high-yielding products and provide year-round service and expertise. Have questions? Ask your local Pioneer sales representative today.

The transgenic soybean event in Enlist E3 ® soybeans is jointly developed and owned by Corteva Agriscience and M.S. Technologies L.L.C.

* Data is based on the average of comparisons made in the US 2019-2021. Comparisons are against all competitors, technology segment matched, unless otherwise stated, and within a +/- 3 CRM of the competitive brand. Efficacy from multiple trials with moderate & high CRW pressure at 8 locations in 2014, 6 locations in 2015, 8 locations in 2016, 8 locations in 2017, 10 locations in 2018, 9 locations in 2019, and 15 locations in 2020.

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Are you ready why the eastern leg of pro farmer crop tour could be the big story in 2023.

USFR-FJR 8/19/23 Crop Tour Preview

Just as the temperatures top triple digits in places across the Midwest this week, the 2023 Pro Farmer Crop Tour is taking off. Iowa and Illinois will be closely watched as scouts set out on the annual tour this week.

Each year, the Pro Farmer Crop Tour happens the third week of August. It's one of the largest and longest-running crop tours in the U.S.

“I think the biggest question marks heading into tour are in Illinois and Iowa, and because the eastern tour covers Illinois and the eastern half of Iowa, the two biggest corn- and soybean-producing states, I think the eastern leg probably has more question marks this year,” says Brian Grete, editor of Pro Farmer.

Fact-Finding Mission

Grete leads the eastern leg of the tour. He says the ultimate goal of crop tour is to span across seven states and measure yield potential for both corn and soybeans.

“It's the same every year. We go into it with no preconceived notions, in terms of what we will expect to find,” says Grete. “It’s a fact-finding mission. At the end of the week, we'll have a really good representative sample across the seven Corn Belt states that cover roughly 1,700 corn and 1,700 soybean samples. We turn those into basically one big cornfield across those seven states.”

Scouts will cover South Dakota and Ohio, then wade through fields in Indiana and Nebraska, with the tour crossing into Illinois and Iowa, and wrapping up in Minnesota. 

“We don't cover all areas across each state. Iowa is the only state that we cover entirely. We're in all 99 counties there, but the other six states, we talk to producers that we know around those areas, and we reach out to other sources within the industry to get a good representative sample of those areas outside of where we sample,” Grete explains.

Drought Covers Iowa 

There’s no doubt about it, there are portions across Iowa, especially northeast and southeast Iowa, that are extremely dry.

“Right now, to try to pinpoint a yield is nearly impossible,” says Troy Deutmeyer, an agronomist with Pioneer who’s located in northeast Iowa. “And part of that reason is we haven't seen a drought of this intensity in so long.”

He says the main theme this year is just how variable this crop could be.

“We're going to have some guys with the best crop they've ever raised and eight miles down the road, it might be the worst one since 1988 or 2012,” he says.

The latest U.S. Drought Monito r paints the picture, showing nearly 99% of Iowa is faced with dry and drought conditions. Even with rains in late July, 3% of the state is still in extreme drought.

“Probably some of the driest areas are probably around that Cedar Rapids-Iowa City area and working down towards southeast Iowa," Deutmeyer says.

He says some of that region did catch rains in early August, but it’s still dry.

“Those are some of the areas that are really hurting with just 1 to 2 inches of rain since planting,” Deutmeyer says.

Corn Plants Still Lush and Green

Yet even in those drought-stricken fields, he says plants are still green.

“I tip my hat a lot to farmers improving their fertility management. The equipment's gotten better. And obviously, genetics can can do a lot more than what they used to," Deutmeyer says.

Another factor that helped were summer temperatures a shade below normal.

“The good part was with the super dry air and low humidity, we were allowed to really cool off at night,” says Deutmeyer. “So, it wasn't uncommon for us to get down into the upper 50s sometimes, and a lot of low 60s. That gave those plants a breather overnight, just like when we go into the air conditioning.”

The smoke from Canada also helped provide a layer from the heat, but it didn’t impact photosynthesis. In fact, Deutmeyer says Iowa was able to see what he describes as Nebraska sunlight, which produced quite a few stalks with two ears. He says most of those ears won’t be able to be counted for yield, but in some areas, they will.

The Potential Garden Spot in Iowa 

While Iowa farmers face dry conditions across much of the state, the garden spot in the state may be along I-35.

“They started catching rains in June, and they've kind of had them throughout the growing season,” says Deutmeyer. “Des Moines toward Mason City area, I think is probably sitting in overall good good shape. But even within that area, there are pockets that are extremely dry.”

Mother Nature Turns Up the Heat

Those cool temperatures are not in store for Crop Tour scouts this week. With extreme heat, combined with high humidity, this will be one of the hottest Crop Tours scouts have ever endured. That may draw even more attention to the tour this year, especially considering crop watchers are going to want to see how the crops hold up to the heat.

For Grete, it means scouts will be measuring a mature crop, which is something that plays into Pro Farmer’s favor when estimating yields.

“We're going to push this crop to maturity and we will be measuring more yield, actual yield and yield potential in a lot of these areas, and our our corn formula works better in years when it's a more mature crop than a less mature crop,” Grete explains.

There’s no question variability will be the headline during Crop Tour, but between advancements in genetics and producers propelling their production practices, it’s a question of how well this crop stood up to this year’s weather extremes.

“And with producers upping their game with management and the improvements in genetics, it's really hard to put a number on and we're probably just going have to wait till October to see how it turns out,” says Deutmeyer.

Crop Tour Results Each Night Vs. Final Pro Farmer Estimate 

Each night, Pro Farmer Crop Tour will release the daily findings, but at the end of the week, Pro Farmer will utilize the data and crop conditions they saw this week, as well as information from states they didn’t tour, to come up with their official Pro Farmer estimates.

Grete says that’s also where historical data plays a key role.

“The other thing is we know how much historically we miss each state by and there are reasons we miss states. Like in Minnesota, for example, we tour the southern tier of counties, and that's the highest producing area in that state. So, we know we're going to be high. But the important thing is we know how much, and that all comes into play at the end of the week when Pro Farmer releases our crop estimates on Friday at 1:30 CT,” says Grete.

While scouts search fields during the day, nightly meetings will give farmers the unique opportunity to hear those results firsthand. Below is a schedule of the nightly meetings. You can attend by registering here:   Click here to register.

2023 IN-PERSON CROP TOUR MEETINGS

WESTERN TOUR Grand Island, Neb. Monday, Aug. 21 Riverside Golf Club  | 2820 Riverside Drive  |  Grand Island, NE 68801   Nebraska City, Neb. Tuesday, Aug. 22 Lied Lodge and Conference Center  |  2700 Sylvan Road  |  Nebraska City, NE 68410   Spencer, Iowa Wednesday, Aug. 23 Clay County Fair and Events Center  |  800 West 18th Street  | Spencer, IA 51301

EASTERN TOUR Noblesville, Ind. Monday, Aug. 21 Embassy Suites Noblesville  |  13700 Conference Center Drive S.  |  Noblesville, IN 46060   Bloomington, Ill. Tuesday, Aug. 22   DoubleTree by Hilton  |  10 Brickyard Drive  |  Bloomington, IL 61701   Iowa City, Iowa Wednesday, Aug. 23   Hyatt Regency Coralville  |  300 East 9th Street  |  Coralville, IA 52241

FINALE Rochester, Minn. Thursday, Aug. 24 Mayo Civic Center  |  30 Civic Center Drive SE  |  Rochester, MN 55902

Click here to register.

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