As part of the monthly USDA S&D Report, USDA Joint Ag Weather Facility has issued the following weather highlights:
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UNITED STATES: During April, most of the nation continued to experience unusually warm weather. Cooler-than-normal weather was generally limited to areas along the Pacific Coast and parts of the Great Lakes and Northeastern States. In the latter region, early-blooming fruit crops were threatened by a series of freezes, the worst of which struck from April 27 to 30. Significantly above-normal April precipitation was mostly limited to the Pacific Coast States, the northern Rockies, and parts of the Plains and upper Midwest. Rainfall was especially important across the northern Plains and upper Midwest, where dryness had begun to develop in late-summer 2011. In contrast, mostly dry weather prevailed across the eastern Corn Belt and much of the South. Planting advanced quickly across the dry regions, but pastures, winter grains, and emerging summer crops were in need of moisture in drought-affected areas of the southern High Plains and the lower Southeast. Elsewhere, cool, showery weather slowed spring fieldwork and crop development in California and the Northwest, while further deterioration of water-supply prospects occurred in the Four Corners States.
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CANADA: April showers improved planting prospects for Prairie spring grains and oilseeds.
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SOUTH AMERICA: In April, timely rain benefited secondary (safrinha) corn in Brazil’s main production areas, following earlier periods of warmth and dryness. Soybean harvesting advanced toward completion. In Argentina, a drying trend aided drydown and harvesting of corn and soybeans. A season-ending freeze late in the month may have caused some localized damage to lateplanted crops.
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EUROPE: Widespread, locally heavy rain returned to most of Europe during April, boosting soil moisture for vegetative to reproductive winter crops. Nevertheless, the impacts of an abnormally dry autumn and an early February arctic outbreak were noted in eastern Europe, where winter grains and oilseeds were either poorly developed or not established at all. However, the wet conditions slowed fieldwork, including the planting of corn, sunflowers, and sugarbeets, particularly in France and Spain.
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FSU: During April, drier- and warmer-than-normal conditions in Ukraine reduced soil moisture for vegetative winter grains. The early spring dryness compounded the effects of an unfavorably dry autumn on wheat prospects. In contrast, rain in Belarus and Russia favored emerging to vegetative winter crops. In eastern spring wheat areas, an unseasonably warm, dry April accelerated field preparations but rapidly reduced soil moisture. By month’s end, however, much-needed rain returned to eastern Russia and northern Kazakhstan.
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