There have been high hopes this year for a very large crop. Last year the excess moisture left many holes in the crop that shaved of the top end of yields. This year it seems every field has a complete stand of corn or beans with no holes.
All samples were taken with the same strategy. Enter a field from multiple locations, go well beyond the end rows to a point that was representative of the field, take a harvestable ear count and select every 10th ear for a sample. Kernel counts were taken from all the ear samples and multiplied by their respected stand counts.
The counts were divided by 85,000 kernels per bushel. The 85,000 kernels count was selected based on the evaluation of all the ears that were pulled. This strategy was performed in four locations of every field sampled. The specific fields sampled were randomly chosen however they were in strategic locations to provide the best possible coverage for the county. Samples were taken from each township in the county. To analyze the data, the county was divided into 4 quadrants (NW,SW,SE,NE).
The Numbers are in:
- Northwest Quadrant 222.9 BPA
- Southwest Quadrant 210.0 BPA
- Southeast Quadrant 217.4 BPA
- Northeast Quadrant 231.0 BPA
- Estimated County Average 218.4 BPA
In addition to the yield estimate, notes were also taken on the progress and the agronomic state of the crop. The northern half of the county had many plants that were "goose necked" likely from the wind events that occurred towards the end of June. Overall stalk integrity was decent. Some ear molds were present in a few of the sampled fields. This included diplodia, aspergillus as well as gibberella. None of the samples taken had reached black layer (physiological maturity). Many of the fields still have a lot of green left in them and appear to have had enough nitrogen to finish. Almost every field showed some pressure from the disease grey leaf spot.