CORN/SOYBEANS:
The Tale of Two Corn Belts
By Craig Solberg
The United States Corn Belt is certainly no small tract of land, as it stretches from about North Platte, NE to
Columbus, OH (a distance of around 900 miles). With that being the case, the weather in Ohio can easily be vastly
different than the weather in Nebraska. That was certainly true during April, creating what we like to call
"The Tale Of Two Corn Belts".
Eastern Corn Belt: Great Planting Weather |
Areas of the Corn Belt located east of the Mississippi River have enjoyed some very good weather so far this planting
season. Soil moisture levels were good coming into the planting season: not excessively moist nor excessively dry,
as wintertime precipitation was close to normal. With April temperatures averaging four to six degrees above normal
and with April precipitation running at normal or below normal levels (see figure below), farmers in Illinois, Indiana
and Ohio entered the fields early this spring and had significant amounts of corn already planted by the end of the month.
Corn in this area should be in excellent shape when it emerges in the early part of May.
Dry weather in April means rapid corn planting progress, and that is indeed
what we saw this past month for the eastern Corn Belt. The planting pace for states such as Illinois and Indiana exceeded the
five-year average through late April. Given all of the snow that had to melt this spring prior to any fieldwork, farmers in
the northwestern Corn Belt were hoping for dry spring weather. Such weather was not evident in April, particularly in South
Dakota and Minnesota. This April precipitation pattern was exactly what we expected it to be...
Western Corn Belt: Poor Planting Weather |
While farmers in the eastern Corn Belt were able to make good progress on fieldwork during April, there were farmers in the west
that had not even entered their fields as we went to press this month. April rainfall totals were above normal over most of Iowa,
and were downright excessive over Nebraska, South Dakota and Minnesota. When combined with the melting of the heavy winter snowfall,
this created a perfect environment for extensive flooding in this area. For the second time in four years, news crews from across the
United States trekked to Grand Forks, ND to cover the flooding along the Red River. Later in April, it was the Mississippi River in
Iowa that got most of the presstime. Davenport, IA saw the worst of the flooding, as that is one of the few cities located along the
Mississippi River that has not built permanent dikes or levees to protect against flooding. The crest of the river at Davenport
basically matched the record high crest at that location during the Great Floods of 1993.
Good Spring Precipitation Forecast |
Our springtime precipitation forecast for the Midwest (first released in the March issue of Trade Winds, and revised only slightly
last month) has called for the wettest of the weather to be in the western Corn Belt, and obviously that has been the case so far
this spring....
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