It’s dry in the West. Growers are plowing under the crop where it’s dry in some places, and the situation is only getting worse. As the 2021 planting season enters its final phase, a growing drought may be just getting started.
“But then there’s this separate area covering North Dakota, eastern Montana and northern South Dakota that is in really dire shape,” says Brad Rippey, USDA meteorologist. “They’ve been dry all the way to back to mid to late summer of 2020 and they went through a record dry winter—there are parts of North Dakota that had less snow than Texas during the winter months.
Producers in North Dakota, expected to plant some 7 million acres of soybeans, are dealing with subsoil moisture levels at 81% short or very short. No one knows the situation better than farmers like Joe Ericson.
“You know, it’s dry,” says Ericson who farms in Wimbledon, North Dakota. “We thought going in it was because we had little to no snow fall and snow cover this year. But we were wet going into last year. We were 60 percent DP. So, we had some subsoil moisture. But that’s starting to, starting to disappear, too, now.”
In Nebraska, Jim Miller says a timely rain last week improved topsoil moisture for his newly planted crop. But further down the soil structure, the picture is a little more bleak.
“You could dig down five feet, four or five feet putting in fenceposts and stuff and it was just, just dry,” says Miller.
Farther east along the I-80 corridor, conditions show more promise.
“We’ve gotten some nice rains here in the last couple of weeks,” says Mitchell Hora, who farms in Washington County, Iowa. “We actually finished up planting earlier than we’ve ever finished by one whole day. Last year we finished on May 2nd. This year, we completely finished planting by May 1st.”
With 80% of the U.S. corn in the ground, and over 60% of the soybeans already planted, that rapid pace will still give way to an uncertain summer.
“The farmers will tell you that the crops are made in the summertime,” says Payne, author of ‘This Week in Grains and Oilseeds.’ “July weather, and the late June weather is what’s important. But when you’re sitting on a lack of subsoil and topsoil moisture, it’s even more critical.”
The other challenge Mother Nature has issued can be seen on a thermometer, and in young plants faced with cold temperatures that lasted until around Mother’s Day weekend.
“Here is an example of one that did not survive the frost,” says Missy Bauer, an agronomist and owner of B&M Consulting.
Temperatures in the eastern corn belt struggled to keep pace with the calendar throughout April and early May.
“These were planted on March 26,” says Bauer. “Our concern in this field was that they were just emerging as we got the freeze and frost on April 20th and 21st.”
But whether the mercury is too high or the rain gauge too low, those producers who have already put away the planter now play the waiting game. And as always, the stakes are high.
“If we stay dry, which they are kind of predicting for northern Nebraska on north up through the Dakotas to stay dry this summer, it’s going to be very concerning for us,” adds Miller.
