Throughout this week, attention has focused on the Professional Farmer annual crop tour that is offering an early projection as to what this year’s corn and soybean yield may produce.  Estimates by crop scouts show some areas, such as northeast Nebraska and southeast South Dakota to have suffered from drought conditions with huge reductions in yield potential, while other areas such as the central corn belt region that extends from central Iowa into Illinois and up into southern Minnesota having good yield potential.  Some farmers living in the most severe drought conditions have given up on having any corn production, and already started chopping their corn for silage.  Brian Grete is a commodity broker with Professional Farmer and is on the crop tour.  He tells of the conditions in South Dakota as seen by his colleagues.  Lance Lillibridge is the Iowa Corn Growers past president and now chairman of the board.  He farms in east central Iowa at Benton County near Vinton and Cedar Rapids.  Lillibridge says he has been fortunate to have received timely and plentiful rainfalls through the growing season.  The latest estimates from Day 4 of the crop tour shows yield potential in southern Minnesota and eastern Iowa averaging between 180 to 190 bushels per acre.