We’re officially starting our day 12 U.S. Crop Tour in the state of Wisconsin. It’s July 8th and I just wanted to give you some quick facts about Wisconsin. This state, at the end of the day, really won’t matter too much about corn, soybean or wheat production for that matter. It’s ranked 22nd in wheat production, 10th in corn production and 17th in soybean production. Average farm here in Wisconsin is 195 acres. It’s second in milk production and third in potatoes. Average rainfall is 32.63 inches in any given year. In the latest USDA Crop Progress Report, corn crop conditions poor to very poor were 3% - that’s up 1% over the last month or so. Good to excellent 84% down to 71%, so a drop of 13%. And soy poor to very poor 1-3%, up 2%. Good to excellent from 86% to 82%. That’s down 4%.
We’re standing in front of a cornfield here; it’s nice and lush, green. I’m not seeing any disease pressure, weed pressure, moisture pressure so far. We’ve travelled through northern Iowa and now into south central Wisconsin. We’ve got chest to head high corn. Maybe a little bit behind but we’ve got lots of heat here today, so it’s looking good in Wisconsin.
We’re travelling north on highway 27. We’re near Black River Falls. Moving further north into Wisconsin, and we’re seeing a little bit of some moisture stress, but not what we’ve quite seen in some of the other states. This is a really good looking field. We can see into the valley there, it’s about a little bit more than chest high, but it’s looking good here in Wisconsin. Some of the corn is not quite as high as this, but overall we’re seeing a little bit more consistency, not as much variability as we’ve seen in some other states.
We’re travelling north on highway 27. We’re just north of Sparta, Wisconsin and we’re just looking at a soybean field here and it’s looking good. It’s not quite filling the rows yet but it is actually just in the process of flowering, so looking good in Wisconsin.
We’re travelling south on 39; we’re near Beloit, Wisconsin and we’re in front of a corn field here. Very little tasseled corn in Wisconsin, like many of the other states, but there is one just there. I don’t find a lot here, but this is on the verge of tasseling. We do see some ears forming here as well, so good looking corn. Most of the corn, both in the central, north and south are looking good. The farmers have basically said that they did get some severe moisture, but it’s been timely and they’ve gotten the heat. It’s a nice sunny day today, and looking like a pretty good crop.
We’re travelling south on 39 near Beloit, Wisconsin. We’re in front of a soybean field. This field was just recently sprayed – we just missed the sprayer going around the corner. Just about to flower on these beans. Looking good – a little bit of weed pressure but he just sprayed for that. We’re going to conclude our U.S. Crop Tour of the state of Wisconsin. Wisconsin looks pretty good compared to most other states. Unfortunately it doesn’t rank high in terms of corn and soybean production. Doesn’t really rank at all when it comes to wheat production, but it looks like average to above average here in Wisconsin. I’m not sure it’s really going to add to the national yield at the end of the day, just because they’re not big enough growers. But other than that, if I was to rank the state, it’s probably top 3. But again, too small to matter.