June 4, 2010

La Nina to possibly damage US grains

The La Nina effect could bring extremely hot weather to the US Midwest's major row crop growing areas this summer, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports.

The National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center issued an alert Thursday (June 3) saying the Pacific Ocean surface temperatures decreased between 0.5 and 1.0 degrees Celsius during May, bringing the end of El Nino. However, it cautions that several computer models are now indicating that La Nina will develop between June and August this summer.

Iowa State University Climatologist Elwynn Taylor says this may be reason for concern to farmers. He also says it's certainly not time to panic just yet.

Specifically, soy is seen as more vulnerable to a La Nina event than corn because the US corn crop is nearly all planted and off to a good start, while soy is still being seeded.