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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Friday, December 20, 2024
Dry weather has helped speed Midwestern and Southern farmers through most of this fall’s corn and soybean harvest while also limiting the amount of grain they could send down the Mississippi River. As many park their combines for the year, they are hoping rain storms can replenish soils parched and waterways shrunk by months of drought.
Abnormally high temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean this summer have increased the chances of storms that could develop into hurricanes this year, researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said last week in an analysis that also predicted El Nino likely would continue through the winter.
Recent rains have brought some relief to producers reeling from drought in the Midwest, though many are hoping more will arrive to help usher their crops through the rest of the growing season.
Drought has spread into regions this fall essential to the Biden administration’s plans to boost wheat production through double cropping, but many farmers who follow the practice in their normal rotations haven’t strayed from their plans to sow winter wheat this fall.
Drought conditions that have been concentrated in the West and southern Plains are likely to spread in Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and South Dakota this summer, according to the U.S. Seasonal Drought Outlook.
The nation’s sugar cane crop likely took the biggest beating of any farm commodity from Hurricane Ida as it barreled northeast through Louisiana and Mississippi over the weekend and into Monday, but some cotton, rice, and soybean acres may have seen damage too.
States in the West and the High Plains are currently facing what Brad Rippey, a USDA meteorologist in the Office of the Chief Economist, calls the “most expansive” drought the U.S. has seen since 2012 and 2013.
High commodity prices are fueling farmers' optimism as planters get rolling this spring, but in some areas the lack of rain this spring is making producers nervous as they plant into the dusty ground.
USDA’s 97th annual Ag Outlook Forum kicks off this morning, and for the first time the meeting will be held online. USDA’s new chief economist, Seth Meyer will provide the department’s annual forecast for crop and livestock production this year.
