320 East South Street PO Box 80 Cerro Gordo, IL 61818-0080 www.clarksongrain.

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Selected grains and oil seeds for food and feed processors

Drove 1,400 miles from Champaign, IL to Grand Island, NE and back on different routes. Walked fields in Nebraska and IL, but the balance is windshield tour.

Looks can be deceiving and its not in the bin yet, but a good looking crop has a chance of being a good yielding crop, whereas a poor looking crop has a hard time being a good yielding crop! Exceptions exist, but generalizations rule the market. Notes: - I-74 Champaign to Galesburg, IL = prepare the ground piles. Thankfully, most elevators will go into harvest MT. Corn 95% tasseled - Hwy 34 from: - Galesburg to Monmouth, IL = Less developed, but good stands. Good color. - Monmouth to Burlington = Some tassels wilting, showing more stress. Henderson County IL, 65% tassels emerging (probably 90% by the time this is written). - Lots of new pivots and also saw some tanks sitting near the pumps to spoon feed nutrients. good future in this area! - small amount of Milo. Looks like someone put it in due to late planting conditions

- Miss river bottoms look good for the most part.

IOWA = In short, I was expecting a disaster from all of the #itsonlyiowa talk. It doesnt look as bad as I had expected (we know looks don't make weights). - Bottoms west of Burlington were pollinated, quite a few brown silks with even stands. Soys looked good as well - Seed corn near Mt. Pleasant looked stressed compared to other areas this year. Crews were out pulling tassels. - Fairfield, IA = worst crops I saw during the whole trip. Not all were bad = highly variable, but some extremely poor fields. Compaction issues near end rows and across field. - West of Fairfield = 40% tassel. - Ottumwa = still highly variable, but better than Fairfield. - Eddyville, more consistent and looked like a nice little pocket from the highway - Oskaloosa area golf course looked brown! - 20 miles SE of Des Moines = Pineapple corn. - I-80 - West of Des Moines, Some soybeans very small, will not shade rows. Some flat corn, but limited area. - Mile marker 99 = prevent plant. - Sidehill seeping from excess water looked to have caused some damage. - some wheat still standing. - Gets better as you go west toward Omaha. West of Des Moines looked better than SouthEast of Des Moines.
Omaha to Grand Island = Crop looks great. Pivots running & crop dusters hitting it hard. - Moving west, more stress on the dry land corners (this is normal). - Going to Minden area, some additional stress in the fields, but pivots seem to be keeping up. flood irrigation fields looked nice as well. - in short, Eastern Ne will have a crop and irrigation is more effective in cooler weather conditions. may be bigger than last year. - Moving South of Beatrice, the crop deteriorates. All wheat has been cut and straw baled. Corn is uneven and soybeans small. Route 36 - This is not known to be a big crop producing area. Marysville, KS - double crop soybeans planted, but very small (normal). - Small beans across this area, - Missouri river bottoms, late, no tassels. - Some N losses across Northern Missouri. Shallow roots? -

IL River Bottoms along I-72 = Right at river was delayed, not much corn and some PP acres. Mostly Soys near the river. As you move toward the bluffs, the corn looks awesome & pivots were feeding it. great potential. PICTURES I realized that taking pictures from the car does not produce crisp images. Hopefully these can show an indication of the crop quality. Illinois =

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NEBRASKA

Pivot Corners =