March 9, 2005

 

US 2005 corn crop being planted

 

 

Planting of the 2005 US corn crop is underway in Texas, although wet weather has kept seeding of the crop slightly behind schedule.

 

Early season fieldwork has also been hampered by wet soils in other areas of the Deep South, although the abundant soil moisture supplies have already prompted one expert to predict above-trend yields. Meanwhile, unusually mild weather in the northern Plains has allowed some Minnesota farmers to resume harvesting corn from the 2004 crop.

 

The Texas Agricultural Statistics Service said Monday that 9 percent of the state's 2005 corn crop had been seeded as of the end of last week, which was slightly behind the normal five-year average of 12 percent.

 

"Land preparation and further planting became stalled during mid to late week as additional rainfall was received," said the agency. "Drying out will be necessary before land preparation and planting can resume."

 

Some sections of the Lone Star state received as much as 6 inches of precipitation last week.

 

Texas was the 11th largest corn-producing state in the US last season, with farmers harvesting 233.5 million bushels of corn from initial plantings of nearly 1.7 million acres.

 

Although initial corn planting operations are centered in the Rio Grande Valley, start-up dates for spring fieldwork in Texas vary as much as the landscape of the huge state.

 

"In West Central and Far West Texas we will not start planting grain sorghum for another 45 days," said San Angelo extension agronomist Billy Warrick.

 

Other spring field crops in Texas - aside from corn and milo - include oats, cotton, peanuts, soybeans and rice, along with melons and vegetables.

 

Farm operations in other areas of the South have been solely limited to tillage and fertilizer applications due to recent heavy rains, which have saturated soils and kept tractors parked in machine sheds from Arkansas to Florida. Some isolated areas of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia received more than 1.00 inch of rain during the past 24 hours alone.

 

Wet winter weather has also extended up into much of the Midwest, reducing chances for an early start to spring fieldwork in the core of the US corn belt.

 

The three-month period which ended February 28 ranked as the seventh-wettest winter on record in Illinois. The state received an average of 9.29 inches of moisture during the winter, about 42 percent more than normal.

 

Although temperatures were mild, experts warn that the impact of the weirdly wet winter weather will be felt well into spring.

 

"I don't think you'll see any early spring planting," said Illinois State Climatologist Jim Angel.

 

This year has also been particularly soggy in neighboring Missouri.

 

"The statewide average two-month precipitation total for January and February is nearly 8 inches, which makes it the fourth wettest January-February period in the past 111 years and the wettest since 1950," said University of Missouri extension climatologist Pat Guinan. "Soil moisture conditions are adequate to surplus over most of the state and may create delays for fieldwork activity in preparation for the upcoming planting season."

 

Even so, corn should develop rapidly once it is successfully seeded, thanks to that same abundance of moisture, leading Iowa State climatologist Elwynn Taylor to suggest: "Indicators point to an above trend US corn crop. The crop yield is most likely to exceed 145 bushels an acre (by a slight amount) as computed at this time."

 

The Climate Prediction Center of the National Weather Service said chronically drought-stressed areas of the western corn belt could even be blessed with enhanced soil moisture supplies this spring.

 

"An active storm track should bring improving drought conditions to southern Nebraska and northern Kansas," said the agency last month.

 

Even so, unusually mild weather has gripped the region recently, allowing the planting of spring oats to begin as far north as Nebraska.

 

"Some guys on the (Nebraska-Kansas) border said they would have even started planting corn this week, if that 70-degree weather from last weekend had stuck around much longer," one Nebraska farmer told Dow Jones Newswires.

 

Abnormally mild March weather has also been a boon to Minnesota grain growers - but for an entirely different reason - allowing some to resume a 2004 corn harvest halted by torrential rains and deep mud last fall.

 

"Approximately 65 percent -70 percent of the corn is still in the field," a local farm official from Hubbard County reported to the Minnesota Agricultural Statistics Service. Moisture levels in unharvested corn are said to average 20 percent -25 percent, with the crop carrying significant amounts of mold damage and low test weights.