Over the weekend, I spent quite a bit of time watching the Weather Channel. Not that I am overly interested in the nation’s weather patterns during early spring, mind you, (which tend to be very unpredictable to give me any real insights for the rest of the season), but because I wanted to know how folks in North Dakota along the Red River were doing. At this month’s Commodity Classic in California, I met several retailers from Fargo, ND, all of whom were worried what the melting winter snows running into the Red River would mean for their homes and businesses. I was relieved to find out that, after setting up more than one million sandbags, the area seems to have weathered the river just fine.
Of course, in a larger sense, weather issues this past year or so have dominated the agricultural landscape. I remember hearing at December’s Agricultural Retailers Association meeting that more than 30% of the corn crop in many Midwestern states remained in the field by the time the first snows of winter rolled around. Many analysts told me at the time that because of the huge amounts of snow that blanketed much of the central U.S., much of this corn would be lost.
A similar tale came from growers in the Mid-South part of the country. Speaking at the 5th annual Ag Issues Forum, sponsored by Bayer CropScience, Trey Koger, soybean Extension specialist for Mississippi State University, told attendees of his state’s troubles with weather during 2009. “In our part of the country last year, growers ended up replanting 25% of the state’s crop, with some doing so multiple times,” said Koger. “Also, there was approximately 110,000 acres of crops left in the field at the end of 2009, and that will never get harvested.”
So far in 2010, the weather in most parts of the U.S. seems to be cooperating. In much of the country, March has been seasonably warm, giving retailers and their grower-customers a chance to conduct some early season field work.
Of course, as industry insiders will tell you, the weather can change at a moment’s notice. But for now, I think all of agriculture can take some comfort in the fact that Mother Nature seems to be in a kind mood.
