Aug. 24, 2026:
Pro Farmer is projecting a smaller U.S. corn crop in 2026 after its annual Crop Tour found lower yield potential across much of the Corn Belt.
The organization estimates the national corn yield at 173.2 bushels per acre, with production totaling 15.344 billion bushels. The yield forecast is about 5% below 2025 levels and marks the first time in three growing seasons that Pro Farmer has not projected a record yield.
Pro Farmer economist and Eastern Crop Tour lead Lane Akre said samples showed smaller crops than last year across multiple states. Expectations that Iowa could offset weather-related losses in Indiana and Illinois were tempered by drought in western Iowa.
“When that spread is 20 bushels” in major eastern producing states, Akre said, it becomes difficult for Iowa to compensate.
Soybeans provided a brighter outlook. Pro Farmer projected a national average yield of 53.3 bushels per acre and total production of 4.57 billion bushels, slightly above the 2025 yield but about 1 bushel below 2024.
Aug. 18, 2026:
Scouts expressed a lot of concern about this year’s corn and soybean crops after the first day of in-field examinations during the 2026 Pro Farmer Crop Tour.
While in South Dakota this week (Aug. 17, 2026), veteran crop scout Brent Judisch says he saw a couple fields that looked especially rough.
“We did have one sample around 60 bushels per acre. Half of the stalks did not have a viable ear on them. They never made a viable ear. So that’s why the yield was so low, because I think we had around 40 stalks and 20 viable ears on each of the two rows that we counted.”
South Dakota estimates show a 149 bushels-per-acre corn yield, down some fourteen percent from last year and eight-point-three percent below the three-year average. The soybean pod counts looked even worse, showing a 20 percent year-over-year decrease and a 12 percent decline from the three-year average. Even among the tough conditions, Judisch says he tries to keep the enjoyment of Crop Tour in mind.
“I get to meet people from the press, traders, foreigners. But then on our third stop, the local farmer – it was his fields – stopped and talked to us. And he was great, glad we stopped. He wanted to talk to us. You know, meeting farmers and being able to see, okay, what happened to this field? What’s your take on why the results are what they are? And when you get it from the horse’s mouth, you know, you’re not just assuming anything, you know? So that’s a good plus too.”
The Pro Farmer Crop Tour makes stops in seven states– South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio.
Story courtesy of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting.
Aug. 14, 2026:
The Pro Farmer Crop Tour returns August 17-20, giving the agriculture industry an early look at the potential size of this year’s corn and soybean crops.
For more than 30 years, the annual tour has provided an independent assessment of crop conditions ahead of harvest. More than 100 scouts will travel through seven major corn and soybean-producing states, collecting data from more than 2,000 fields in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio and South Dakota. The tour will be divided into eastern and western routes before both groups conclude in Rochester, Minnesota, on August 20. Daily results will include field observations, yield estimates and historical comparisons.
Coverage will be available through AgWeb, AgDay, AgriTalk, U.S. Farm Report and social media, along with nightly meetings that can be attended in person or viewed online. The tour comes as producers and markets look for updated insight into crop potential weeks before harvest gets underway.
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