There has been a lot of interest from our readers in the Pro Farmer Crop Tour in the US, so AgriLand decided to give some more details on how the tour works.

The tour takes place across seven states in the US – South Dakota; Ohio; Nebraska; Indiana; Iowa; Illinois; Indiana; and Minnesota.

Scouts – who travel to the fields taking measurements and samples – stop every 15 to 20 miles along different routes.

The scouts stop in both corn and soybean fields and do not enter fields with no trespassing signs. Many of the scouts are farmers themselves and take care when sampling crops.

The scouts follow guidelines on how to take samples so it is all done using the same method as outlined by the Farm Journal / Pro Farmer (below).

Corn yield is calculated roughly. The ear count (EC) is needed, which is the total number of ears counted in two 30ft rows.

The ear length (EL) is obtained by calculating the average length of the grain from three ear samples.

The average number of kernel rows (KR) around the ear from three ear samples is also counted and the row spacing (RS) is measured. The equation for calculating corn yield is outlined below.

Results from Ohio and South Dakota

Results from the tour in Ohio showed an average corn yield of 167.69bu/ac, while the pod count in soybeans was 466.08 pods/3ft.

The average yield of corn calculated by the Pro Farmer scouts in South Dakota was 179.24bu/ac. There were 842.94 pods/3ft in South Dakota.

Next up

Today (August 18) scouts will travel in Nebraska and Indiana, while Wednesday sees sampling take place in western Iowa and Illinois.