Weather - General
Look to see your risk for a dry start to planting season.
Farmers are entering into spring planting season with drought covering a most of the western half of the country. A new study looking into the problem shows dry periods between rain have become longer in the West.
While weather this week is helping bring moisture to portions of the Plains, climatologists say you have to go back a couple decades to see a drought scenario similar to this year. The dryness is planting concerns.
With a consecutive warm and dry days in much of the Corn Belt, some farmers were able to start planting earlier than normal last week, but the weather pattern this week is flipping, with a cooler bias setting in.
Drought continues to grasp the western half of the country. As some farmers wait on rain to plant, Tommy Grisafi outlines some marketing tools to consider.
Early April was met with some eagerness to plant, and as some areas see dry soils, planters have started to roll. From Kansas to Illinois, farmers sowed their first seeds of the 2021 growing season.
As the calendar flips to April this week, farmers are focused on spring weather forecasts. Meteorologist Mike Hoffman expects mild temperatures for much of the country, but the moisture situation is a mixed bag.
Weather is always a factor in the commodity markets, but this year, weather could be an even bigger catalyst for higher or lower prices.
Farmers have much to consider weather-wise as they head out to plant this year, with drought covering more than half the country. And meteorologists fear the drought in the West may worsen.
Weather variability is the largest source of risk in production agriculture.