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Crop tour finds big Illinois corn yield potential, huge soy pod counts

Corn yield potential customers in Illinois are the biggest in the Pro Farmer crop trip's 32year history and the state's soybean pod count is the biggest seen on the tour since 2000, scouts on the yearly U.S. Midwest trip reported on Wednesday.

The crop tour projected the Illinois corn yield at 204.14 bushels per acre (bpa), a record that surpassed the trip's. previous high set in 2014. The figure topped the tour's 2023. Illinois average of 193.72 bpa and the three-year average of. 193.58 bpa.

Those were heavy, heavy ears, extreme heavy ears that we. pulled, in a great deal of cases, said Brian Grete, editor of Pro. Farmer and leader of the trip's eastern leg.

The capacity for a bumper harvest comes as grain and. oilseed futures prices have slumped to almost four-year lows. in the middle of robust international supplies and concerns about demand from top. soy purchaser China. The U.S. Department of Agriculture this month. forecast record U.S. corn and soybean yields and predicted the. Illinois corn yield at a whopping 225 bpa, topping the state's. previous record by 11 bpa.

The four-day crop trip, which does not project soybean. yields, approximated the number of soybean pods in a 3-by-3-foot. square in Illinois, the leading soybean producing state, at an. average of 1,419.11, above in 2015's tour average of 1,270.61. pods and the three-year average of 1,266.70 pods.

Scouts on the tour's western leg found mostly above-average. corn yield prospects in the western third of Iowa, though heavy. spring rains and hail during the growing season impacted fields. in the state's northwest corner.

The trip predicted corn yields in northwest Iowa's crop. District 1 at 176.59 bushels per acre (bpa), listed below in 2015's. findings and the trip's three-year average. Soybean pod counts. per 3-by-3 foot area balanced 1,108.76, down from in 2015 however. a little up over the three-year average.

Corn yields in the west-central District 4 were pegged. at 195.86 bpa, above the trip's year-ago and three-year. averages. Soybean pod counts averaged 1,254.09, up from 2023 and. the three-year average.

And corn yields in southwest Iowa's District 7 were seen. at 191.59 bpa, also up from the year-ago and three-year. averages. Soybean pod counts balanced 1,366.22 pods, above last. year's count and the three-year average.

The crop tour, which began on Monday, will release. statewide figures for Iowa along with Minnesota on Thursday.

(source: Reuters)