How are your crops faring this year? What are your early hopes for yields? We’re asking growers about what’s really happening in their fields. Click the Feedback From The Field reporting form and give us your first-hand account on conditions and yields.

Use the interactive map below to see all this year’s reports just by clicking the flagged locations. Click the box in the upper left-land corner of the map to bring up an index of what the different colors of the markers signify and to toggle the week’s reports on and off.

The 2019 growing season started out challenging, to say the least. Reports from growers last week on Feedback From The Field suggest conditions aren’t getting any easier.

Fields that flooded in the spring and early summer now are dry in parts of the growing region. Late-planted crops that had lower yield potential to begin with now face production losses from heat as they struggle to reproduce.

Farmers traditionally take a conservative approach on early yield estimates, even in a normal growing season. But as USDA prepared to release its first estimate of production based on farmer surveys, Feedback averages were 15 to 20 bushels per acre below trade guesses for corn, with soybeans 5 to 10 bpa lower than analysts surveyed by wire services.

To be sure, some producers rated fields in excellent condition. But they came mostly from areas outside the traditional growing region. With rain scarce last week over much of the central and eastern Corn Belt, yield assessments were lower. Overall ratings for corn and soybeans both dropped last week, with a notable decline in soybeans reported.

“Haven't seen much rain since June,” wrote a grower near the Illinois River in north central Illinois who estimated corn yields at 150 bushels and soybeans at 45. “Corn is starting to fire and beans aborting flowers. Weed pressure is coming on in beans.”

Reports of dry areas in Illinois were plentiful. Conditions appear somewhat better in Iowa but concerns over uneven development due to the wet spring remain a concern from one end of the growing region to the other.

“April planted corn looks real good,” said a farmer in central Iowa with 200-bushel corn and 65-bushel soybeans. “June planted might not make it.”

Near the Minnesota border in north central Iowa, yield hopes were lower, but still optimistic. “Both corn and soybeans look okay now after a very wet and rough start,” was the report from a producer with hopes for 165-bushel corn and 50-bushel beans. “The majority of us got the corn in the first two weeks of May and the beans finished the first 10 days of June. Now have to hope for 1 or maybe 2 more rains and no early frost to see what our crop will do!”

While lack of rain was the main issue cited by growers last week, the opposite was true on parts of the Plains where storms lingered. High winds and hail were noted in South Dakota too.

“Very wet, still not any cover crops planted,” said a South Dakota farmer, one of several with wind damage who put yields at 135 bpa for corn and 35 bpa for soybeans.

Follow along with the season by clicking these links:

Feedback From The Field - Aug. 5, 2019 - Farmers worry that yields aren’t there

Feedback from the Field - July 29, 2019 - Crops improve after heat breaks

Feedback from the Field - July 22, 2019 - Blazing heat wilts crops

Feedback from the Field - July 15, 2019 - Hot, dry week stresses soybeans

Feedback from the Field - July 8, 2019 - Crops improve but development lags on late planting

Feedback From The Field - July 1, 2019 - Crops improve but development lags on late planting

Feedback From The Field - June 24, 2019 - Planting woes aren’t only worry for growers

Feedback From The Field - June 17, 2019 - Acres lost to corn prevent plant mount

Feedback from the Field - June 10, 2019 - Judgement time: Take prevent plant or keep going?

Feedback from the Field - June 3, 2019 - Corn planting deadlines pass as farmers ponder what to do

Feedback from the Field - May 28, 2019 - Growers make progress, but at what cost?

Feedback from the Field - May 20, 2019 - Warm, dry week gets growers in the field as crucial benchmarks arrive

Feedback from the Field - May 13, 2019 - Wet is the word for 2019.

Feedback From the Field - May 6, 2019 - Some farmers in western areas make progress but overall planting remains slow.

Feedback From the Field - April 29, 2019 - Farmers in eastern Corn Belt and upper Midwest face delays.

Feedback From the Field - April 22, 2019 - A few wheels turned but most of the Corn Belt is too wet.