Day 3

We started in Omaha at a smooth 55 degrees this morning!  The sun was out and the wind was blowing about 20 MPH.  We traveled west towards Fremont NE.  Our general observation for Eastern Nebraska was that it is very wet.  It appears that as of June 23 that no center pivot irrigation has operated in 2011.  There was water standing in nearly every field.  Crops went from hurt in some areas to not showing any stress from water at all.  It appears to have rained significantly in the last four days.  Soybeans continue to look more stressed than corn.

Our first stop of the morning was just North of Fremont, NE in Dodge County.  The random field that was used in the sample was seed corn production.  The stand was poor and variable.  It ranged from 17,000 in one row to 40,000 in the next row.  It was at the V5 growth stage and rated a 7 on the condition scale.  The soil corn yield rating was 75-99 BPA.  This field has the ability to irrigate, but the pivots have not run this season.

 

Dodge County NE

The second stop was in Dakota County, NE southwest of Sioux City, IA.  The random field was planted to corn.  It was extremely wet.  We kicked up a family of Ducks off of the water standing in the field.  The field already had been replanted once and the replant corn was very poor.  The plant population was 32,000 ppa at the V5 growth stage.  The condition of the crop was rated as a 5.  The soil rating was 109-117 corn BPA.







Dakota County NE



We traveled across the Missouri River to the east into Northwest Iowa.  The third stop was in O’Brien County, IA north of Sheldon.  This field was very wet as well.  It almost appeared that it had been replanted.  The population for the corn field was 28,000 ppa at V3 growth stage.  We rated it as a 6 on the condition scale.  The soil rating was 156-167 BPA.



O'Brien County IA

We continued driving northeast into Minnesota the land of 10,000 lakes and 20,000 ponds in the fields.  Western Minnesota was very wet.  Soybeans continued to be a concern for plant health.  Corn was not as even as Iowa and further behind although not significantly.

The first stop in MN was in Jackson County northeast of Brewster. N The corn was in good condition at a rating of 8.  The population was 31,000 ppa at the V5 growth stage.  The field was wet.  The soil corn yield rating was 145-151 BPA.



Jackson County MN



The fifth stop was in Waseca County west of Janesville, MN.  The plant population was 31,000 ppa at the V4 growth stage.  The field condition was 8 and the soil rating was 151-156 BPA.  The field was more variable as was the area.  It appeared to be planted about three weeks ago.





Waseca County MN



The final stop in Minnesota was in Dodge County, east of Claremont.  The field was the driest field of the day.  It only took 5 minutes to scrap the mud off of our shoes.  The field was planted to corn at 33,000 ppa.  The crop was between V5 and V6 and had a condition of 9.  The soils were rated at 168-174 BPA.





Dodge County MN



As we finish our trip through MN, we note that we have not seen one field unplanted.  We did see a few fields that were planted in the last week, but we did not see anything that was going to be prevented plant.  Also in our travels we would say that nearly every river bottom was extremely wet but not totally flooded out.  We concede that our travels did not take us into the severely flooded areas south of Omaha.  We traveled right at 500 miles today!

Check us out tomorrow as we conclude our trip though WI and Northern IL back to Champaign.