Boots on the Ground Crop-Scouting

Friday, May 22, 2026

Knowing what’s going on in your fields supports better management decisions

By Emily McKinlay

Even with the ever-expanding market for crop-management technology, nothing can replace having boots on the ground and eyes on your crop.

Scouting crops is one of the easiest ways for producers to fine-tune their input timing, while keeping up on weed and pest management. Frequent field checks and good records of crop performance and health support teamwork between farmers and agronomists to maximize crop performance.

“Working with your agronomist and communicating with them can help grow a high-yielding and quality crop that will benefit you as a grower with a farm business,” says Kelsey Banks, owner and agronomist at Banks Agro in Morrisburg.

“The main reason to scout your crops is to ultimately support you in your farm goals. An agronomist will do their best to be out and support you, but there is a big benefit when growers share their own notes on what they are seeing in the field. At the end of the day, they are most familiar with that farm.”

What should producers look for when scouting their crops, and how can they use their findings to communicate with their agronomist and make better management decisions?

When to scout & what to look for

Growers should be walking through their crops several times throughout the growing season. The concerns and characteristics growers assess will change as the crop progresses through its growth stages.

When crop scouting, it is important to have a representative view of the field. By always checking the easy spots, larger problems can be missed.

“Producers should be going in to look at numerous places throughout their fields,” says Banks.

“Many people just go into the headlands, but you may not be getting an accurate enough scout to be able to use that information. Often, the headlands aren’t the place we want to go. You want to go all over the field because there may be different soil types, elevations, or other factors that may affect crop production.”

Banks adds, “This may look like choosing a few different spots in the field and checking those, or working in a pattern, but it’s important to go through the field and not just around it.”

Growers should be looking at their fields first-thing in the spring, long before there are any crops to assess.

“Before you plant, you should go out to see if the soil is in good condition to plant into,” says Banks.

“Even before working the ground, you should make sure it is in satisfactory condition to begin with.”

Pre-planting, producers should be assessing soil conditions, including moisture and temperature. This is also a good initial opportunity to identify which weeds are present before the crop is in the ground. Assessing the initial weed flush in the spring can help determine whether a pre-plant burndown is necessary.

“The first thing to look for is what weeds are coming through. If you can handle them earlier, you are going to be able to have more control over them,” says Banks.

“Start looking at the weeds in the field to see if you need to do a pre-plant burndown.”

After the seed is in the ground and the crop starts to emerge, producers should be back in to look at their fields again.

“After planting, give it a few days and then see how emergence is coming along. This allows you to see your germination rate and make sure that the crop is growing.

“As the crop is growing, you can start doing population counts as well. This gives you a better idea of the population that’s there and of what to expect throughout the season as the crop grows.”

In the growing season, producers should check their crops several more times to confirm staging. This is important to increase the precision of crop protection application timing and to maintain surveillance for any health or growth issues in the crop.

“Take a look at your crops at different staging throughout the season. You should be looking at timing for additional product applications, like fungicide and herbicide timing, and making sure you have sufficient weed control,” says Banks.

“The agronomist and grower can work together to make sure the crop is checked throughout the year. It can be hard for farmers to get out to the fields at some key timings, and this is where an agronomist could be supporting you.”

Producers should check in regularly to keep a watchful eye on weeds and potential signs of pests, diseases, and nutrient deficiencies.

“With various pests, they tend to come at different times throughout the growing season.

The disease pressure on a crop can also be influenced by weather. Producers should check their fields after major weather events or stretches of extreme weather.

“Especially with fungicides, keep an eye on the weather,” says Banks.

“If it’s hot and humid and you have the right combination in the disease triangle — host, pathogen, and environment — you can start to have trouble with disease.”

As harvest approaches, plant populations can be counted to generate yield estimates. It is important that these yield estimates are determined in more than one spot in the field. Moisture and crop conditions can be monitored to plan harvest timing.

“By doing yield estimates throughout the field, you can get a general idea of what your yield might end up being.

“Pre-harvest, you can assess if the crop is at an appropriate moisture or if it’s too moist to harvest. After harvest, producers should also check in on their weed control and see if they need to do anything to prepare for the following season’s crops.”

Making decisions

The real payoff for scouting comes in the ability to make better data-driven decisions. The information collected from the fields throughout the season should be communicated to the agronomist, and, as a team, management can be tailored to address any problems that are identified in the current and future years’ crops.

Keeping records and notes allows producers and agronomists to look back on the year with more supporting detail.

“There are a couple of ways to keep notes while you’re scouting. It can be simply a paper and pen, or you can also do it digitally,” says Banks.

Some equipment will have crop management programs. Often, these programs will have a function for keeping scouting notes.

“For myself, as I am scouting a field, I will often put a GPS pin into my phone to mark where I am and will put notes in my phone saying, ‘seeing pigweed and wild oats,’ and then I have an idea of what’s going on and where it is.

“The level and severity of the problem are also important to note if you are deciding if it is worth going through the field with another chemical product.”

Routine scouting and good records are just part of the process. To get the full benefit, the observations should be applied to management decisions. If a producer finds something in their crop, it should also be shared with their agronomist to keep everyone up to date.

“A phone call or email is always a good way to share what you find,” says Banks.

“I have some growers who will take notes while scouting and maybe they record that a weed is coming back. If they find something, often they will just text it to me. That method is nice and immediate. If notes are taken digitally, producers can just send a copy of what they have seen.”

Banks says this kind of communication can occur frequently and should include details about the crop, its stage, what was observed, and where in the field it was observed. “Whenever producers are out scouting, they should communicate with their agronomist.

“It might just be as easy as saying, ‘I was out in the soybean fields and germination has begun,’ or, ‘Hey, I’m starting to see yellow spots on leaves.’ If the producer takes a picture and sends it, can be helpful for both the producer and agronomist to connect to stay in the loop.”

Making scouting a regular part of your crop management routine can improve the timing of yield-determining decisions and create a performance record that can be referenced for future crops.

“Scouting can impact your yield at the end of the day by supporting you in making crop production decisions that work for you and your farm business.” BF