The 2011 Pro-Farmer Midwest Crop Tour is in the books and it was a popular tour this year! The question throughout the event was whether or not good corn yields in Nebraska, parts of Minnesota and parts of Iowa were going to make up for poor yields towards the East.
When it was all said and done, that crop tour pegged the 2011 U.S. corn crop at 12.484 billion bushel with an average yield 147.9 bushels per acre.
Jim Bower of Bower Trading told us late Friday that, with that average yield below 151 bushels, it’s at a major tipping point.Beyond ethanol and exports, Jim says that the limited supply means that some livestock feeders just will not have the supply of grain that they need, regardless of how good the price for their livestock may be. He said that he’s amazed by recent high hay prices and how far that hay has to travel before it gets to the point of consumption.
As for the U.S. soybean crop, Pro-Farmer sets production at 3.083 billion bushels with an average yield of 41.8 bushels per acre. This was better than what the USDA had pegged the crop at in their last report. Scouts say that the difference came as they witnessed the least amount of disease pressure they have ever seen in the beans.
© Northern Ag Network 2011
Haylie Shipp
