It's Been Wet In The Farmbelt

It started raining in the middle part of America at the end of last winter and never really stopped.  The map above shows how much of the Mississippi watershed has seen significant precipitation above average this year. Sure the rains slacked off a bit in the summer months but much of the Midwest and upper plains states never really had that prolonged period of heat and dryness that often characterizes summer.  Even the areas that did see that kind of weather have seen the rains come back this fall.  It's rained so much up here that all of the great lakes are full to bursting.  Most on average are nearly three feet above historic levels and estimates are that these levels will continue rising into 2020.  

The article from Politico that shows the chart above has several others that display other results from  the rains this year.  I'll let you click on the link to the article below if you want to check out this and their other graphs on what's happened in the Farmbelt.  It's also an excellent article about climate change out on the farm.  My interest today though is simply on what did not happen.  What didn't happen is a whole lot of acreage didn't get planted.  The wet weather meant that farmers in many parts of the country were late getting their crops into the field or didn't get those crops planted at all.  The article states that 19.6 million acres of corn, soybeans, wheat etc. didn't get into the ground.  A lot of what did get planted went in late, which will likely lead to reduced yields and farmers praying for a longer patch of warm weather into the fall.  

Expect to see this situation picked up more in the press in the coming weeks.  That's especially true if Mother Nature brings winter on earlier than normal.  Despite what you may read, I wouldn't panic on this news as there should not be food shortages or any of the more dire things you might see in the press.  Expect though to pay more at the store for certain things as the year progress.

Back Monday.

Link:  Politico.com: "Im Standing Here in the Middle of Climate: Change How USDA Fails Farmers."