Cedar Falls, Iowa (Aug. 21, 2023) — Scouts will fan out across the Midwest this week to measure this year’s corn and soybean yield potential during the 31st annual Pro Farmer Crop Tour. The tour runs Aug. 21-24, covering seven states and capturing the attention of the agriculture industry and national media. Observations and results of the Pro Farmer Crop Tour will be shared nightly at in-person events throughout the tour and streamed live online at www.agweb.com.
“Heading into this year’s tour, we know the corn crop was heavily stressed by dryness through June,” said Brian Grete, Pro Farmer editor and Eastern tour director. “From our 30 previous years of experience and data collecting, we know the recipe for a strong yield is to rush the crop to pollination and then slow it down through grain fill. One of the keys will be how much damage we find from drought conditions in the first half of the growing season.”
Pro Farmer Crop Tour is the most thorough and most followed inspection of yield potential during a critical time in the growing season. Crop industry stakeholders watch results closely for insights around projected grain supplies and the effects on commodity markets.
“USDA no longer collects objective yield samples in August, so Crop Tour will be the first to broadly measure ear populations and pod counts from actual fields across the Corn Belt,” said Chip Flory, “AgriTalk” host and Western tour director. “The objective is to find a representative sample of yield potential across the seven Corn Belt states. We’ll pull more than 1,600 corn and 1,600 soybean samples, which should provide significant insight into where this crop is and how it may finish.”
Farmer-scouts and industry experts will cover fields across Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio and South Dakota on the tour. A summary of findings will be presented nightly at 8 p.m. CDT, through a live-streamed broadcast hosted by Clinton Griffiths, Tyne Morgan, Chip Flory and Brian Grete.
Each day’s official findings and results will be published on ProFarmer.com, where subscribers have exclusive access to comparative data of past tour results.
Registration is required to attend nightly meetings and to access live-streamed results each night. Registration is available at www.ProFarmer.com/register.
Robust daily coverage also will be delivered on AgWeb.com as well as “AgDay” TV. Grete and Flory will join tour scouts on “AgriTalk” radio at 10:06 a.m. and 2:06 p.m. CDT to share the latest crop observations each day of the tour. Real-time reports will cascade across social media at #PFTour23. Pro Farmer’s national crop production estimates will be published in the Aug. 26 issue of the Pro Farmer Newsletter.
Pro Farmer thanks the scouts that make this event possible; platinum sponsors Pioneer and BASF; gold sponsors Ag Leader, Minnesota Soybean Research & Promotion Council, Meristem, RCIS and U.S. Soybean Export Council/United Soybean Board; and silver sponsors Brandt, Champion Seed, Farm Credit Services of America, Growmark, Nutrien and Pattern Ag for their partnership in the 2023 Pro Farmer Crop Tour.
Founded in 1973, Pro Farmer is owned by Farm Journal and the leading subscription-based market advisory organization in agriculture serving members across the United States and Canada.
About Farm Journal
Farm Journal is the nation’s leading business information and media company serving the agricultural market. Started 147 years ago with the preeminent Farm Journal magazine, the company serves the row crop, livestock, produce and retail sectors through branded websites, eNewsletters and phone apps; business magazines; live events including conferences, seminars and tradeshows; nationally broadcasted television and radio programs; a robust mobile-text-marketing business; and an array of data-driven, paid information products. Farm Journal also is the majority shareholder of the online equipment marketplace, Machinery Pete LLC. In 2010, the company established the non-profit, public charity, Farm Journal Foundation, dedicated to sustaining agriculture’s ability to meet the vital needs of a growing population through education and empowerment.