Jul 28, 2015
Survey for August Crop Report now Underway
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
NASS will conduct their field surveys for the August Crop Report this week and next week in preparation for the report which will be released on August 12th. Their task is going to be made more difficult this year due to the tremendous variability in states such as Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, and Missouri. As a result, their August estimates will probably be less accurate than in a normal year and certainly less accurate than last year when the crops were uniformly good across much of the Midwest.
There are not many ears that can be measured and weighed at this point, so the corn estimate will be based more on modeling for various factors including: the plant count, the number of plants that have a developing ear, and the weather conditions thus far during the growing season. For soybeans, it is even more model based because the crop is just now flowering and starting to set pods.
The crop reports during August, September, October, and November are based on a combination of objective data gathered from hundreds of fields across the ten major production states as well as subjective responses from thousands of farmers across the country.