Southwest Iowa Crop Conditions

This week’s Pro Farmer Crop Tour traveled through western Iowa on Wednesday.
They started in Sioux Falls, traveled south through Yankton and to Lincoln and Omaha,
then back up western Iowa to Spencer, then met with the eastern tour in Rochester.
The tour participants found disappointing corn and beans in South Dakota and much
of Nebraska, and found variable corn but better soybean prospects across western
Iowa. Most yield results in their western Iowa stops were in the 180-200 range.
No bean yield estimates are made but they take pod counts, which were close to
recent averages. However, pod fill is the big question mark right now for bean
yield and there’s no way to predict that. All we can say at the moment is that
yield potential for beans is still pretty good. There will be some very good corn
yields as well, but the variability is definitely an issue on final outcome. Silage
chopping has been underway for several weeks in the drier areas to the west.

Both corn and bean prices have responded to this news with higher prices. After
posting a low earlier in August, they’ve worked considerably higher. It has become
pretty common for the “harvest low” to actually occur pre-harvest, as early as
early August. It rarely occurs after early October anymore.

Land prices remain strong with lots of volume on the market. This is interesting
because we’re now seeing some neighborhoods with a lot of sales volume over the
past twelve months. We shall see how much money is out there to continue
absorbing it and at what price levels. Top-quality parcels always bring good money,
so the first place to look for less strength is with the lower-quality parcels.