Kelly Manufacturing



National & World Ag News Headlines
Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour Nearly Ready to Unveil Findings
USAgNet - 08/25/2016

This week, the agriculture market has been fixated on the army of folks scattered all over the Midwestern United States to observe the corn and soybean crops first-hand. On August 22, more than 100 industry participants fanned out over the seven biggest corn and soybean producing states on the 24th annual Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour, which always takes place the third full week of August.

Reutuers reports that this year's tour may be the largest, most widely-known and followed crop tour of any kind in the world, as it provides crucial insight into the world's largest corn and soybean crops. The Tour covers the key states of Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio, and South Dakota.

Crop "scouts" are made up of people from all corners of the agriculture market including producers, speculators, analysts, and journalists, to list a few. The scouts are traveling hundreds of miles over four days, entering corn and soybean fields to get a handle on how big each crop might be this year.

Due to the scale of the Midwest Crop Tour, the data collected by scouts has the power to move prices in the market. This year, crop ratings have been amongst the highest of all time but temperatures have been on the warm side, so the market is looking to the Tour to validate these condition scores as well as the estimates put forth by the U.S. Department of Agriculture earlier this month.

The Tour does not estimate and report a state-by-state soybean yield, but rather a count of the number of pods in a three-foot by three-foot plot.

On Thursday evening, the final two state-level Tour figures will be released for Iowa and Minnesota. Pro Farmer will then use the Tour data to derive national and state-level corn and soybean crop estimates to be released on Friday. This will not be an official Tour estimate, but rather Pro Farmer's estimate, in which the Tour data is only one of the factors.


Other National Headlines
Real Wisconsin Cheese Curds
Riverside Plastic Inc./RSI Calf Hutches
Copyright © 2024 - Farms.com. All Rights Reserved.