Weather has delayed the North American 2008 crop by at least two weeks, and for some U.S. growers, a crop won’t be harvested this year.
Cool, dry weather has delayed crop maturity in many parts of the American Midwest, while on the Canadian Prairies the same weather pattern delayed seeding and left many early-seeded crops lingering in the soil, injuring germination and yield potential.
Agrologist Rob Wauters of Pioneer Hi-Bred in Lethbridge said weather across the prairie provinces and plains states has only one thing in common.
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“It delayed crops because it was cool this spring. Other than that, it’s been too much rain, too little, too late, too early. And of course, then there were the hail and wind storms.”
When the rain did fall, it was too much for some areas along the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains and in the Mississippi River region.
Widespread flooding in the Midwest was followed by drought. The early season cool, dry period held back winter wheat crops in Kansas and Nebraska, delaying maturity by about two weeks. Flooding in southern Iowa, Missouri, Illinois and Ohio killed corn and soybean crops. However, recent United States Department of Agriculture surveys of late June’s flooded regions have boosted acreage estimates to 79.3 million acres of corn from 78.9 million and soybeans to 73.3 million from 72.1 million. Estimated yields also jumped to 155 bushels per acre on corn from 148.4, ahead of long-term averages of 152. Soybean yields are expected to be lower than average.
The total corn crop for 2008? Corn will fill the American bins to the 12.3 billion bu. mark, the second biggest crop in history after 2007.
In Nebraska, heavier than usual July rain claimed low lying crops between Grand Island and Lincoln and continued to fall into the first weeks of August.
Recent rain in drought-plagued Arkansas eventually allowed farmers to plant soybeans, but some crops are eight weeks behind schedule. Drought kept planters out of fields until the middle of July.
Lyle Wiebe, a farmer from Goessel, Kansas, said the weather has been unnerving.
“It’s been real spotty. In some places too much, in others too little. We’ve been lucky this year with the wheat, and we’ve had plenty of the rains, so we’re getting back in with another crop.”
He is planting a crop of soybeans in hopes the temperatures will stay up and give him a pair of profitable crops in the same season.
A few hundred kilometres to the east, producers were planting their first crop of beans at the same time as Wiebe’s second after losing a crop to water in June.
Last week, rain returned to southern Minnesota and Iowa, relieving concerns about crops that had already been replanted once.
In Alberta, crops regained ground as temperatures climbed to seasonal norms.
Saskatchewan producers also saw improvements in conditions as rain and heat improved prospects in canola with stands filling after poor germination. Rain from Regina north helped improve the yield of late seeded cereals, while heat helped with maturity.
Rain in Manitoba improved conditions in the Red River Valley and the province’s southwestern corner.
The Canadian canola crop has reached record acreage of more than 15.6 million acres and, provided frost stays away, is expected to yield above the annual average.
