Grand Island, Nebraska | Reuters—Corn yield prospects in both Ohio and South Dakota were below last year’s findings, but higher than the three-year average, scouts on an annual tour of top U.S. production states found on Monday.
Though scouts on the four-day crop tour said there was solid soybean crop potential in the two states, some questioned whether corn yields in South Dakota would hit the hefty levels the government has predicted – and whether there could be more grain in Ohio than expected.
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture this month forecast a record U.S. soybean crop and the third-largest corn crop – a bounty that comes as grain and oilseed prices have slumped to nearly four-year lows amid robust global supplies and growing concerns about demand from top soybean buyer China.
South Dakota’s average corn yields were projected at 156.51 bushels per acre (bpa), the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour said, below the 2023 crop tour average of 157.42 bpa but higher than the three-year crop tour average of 142.44 bpa.
Some scouts found persistent rains at the beginning of the growing season had limited the number of ears on the plants, pressuring yields in some fields.
“It was disappointing,” crop scout Sherman Newlin said.
In Ohio, the tour’s state average corn yield was projected at 183.29 bpa, just below the 2023 crop tour average of 183.94 bpa and above the prior three-year average of 181.06 bpa.
The USDA has projected a seven per cent increase in South Dakota’s corn yield this year and a five per cent drop in Ohio’s, compared to 2023.
The four-day crop tour, which does not project soybean yields, estimated the amount of soybean pods in a 3-by-3-foot square in South Dakota at an average of 1,025.89 pods, up from last year’s average of 1,013.00 pods and above the three-year average of 960.42 pods.
It estimated the amount of soybean pods per 3-by-3-foot square in Ohio at an average of 1,229.93 pods, down from last year’s average of 1,252.93 pods but above the three-year average of 1,193.31 pods.
The tour will release forecasts for Indiana and Nebraska on Tuesday.
