Hands-on Yield Calculation Underway

The Midwest Pro Farmer crop tour kicked off today sending carloads of people fanning out through the middle of the country to investigate conditions and projected yields.  The eastern leg of the tour started this morning in Columbus, Ohio headed for Fishers, Indiana this evening.  That group will continue over the next couple of days with overnight stops in Bloomington, Illinois and Iowa City, Iowa.  The western leg set out from Sioux Falls, South Dakota this morning heading south with scheduled stops in Grand Island, and Nebraska City, Nebraska and  Spencer-Iowa.  Both legs of the tour will end day four in southern Minnesota.

The annual road adventure includes multiple cars fanning out over multiple predetermined routes.  Along the way scouts will take corn and soybean samples and measurements from 1,100 fields on more than 20 pre-determined routes through the seven states. Corn and soybean fields are selected randomly.  Approximately every 20 miles measurements are taken from the nearest field regardless of crop conditions.  The Pro Farmer analysts take these numbers, the scouts’ observations of current crops and insights from past crop tours to determine yield estimates and their impact on the markets.

Tour participants will wrap up the multi-day calculation in southern Minnesota where they’ll tabulate the results.