Midwest Drought Conditions Persist- No Relief for Corn/Soybean Farmers
It's dry. It's hot. And there seems to be no signs of a letup for our area farmers. We went from the Mississippi River flooding to near-record levels this spring. And Now, much of the Midwest is gripped by drought, setting farmers on edge in response to a rough growing season. Arid conditions are expected to persist across the states of Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin and Missouri. It's gotten so bad that now moving grain is even an issue as river barges are seeing immense difficulty making trips up and down river.
In this aerial, a home is surrounded by floodwater from the Mississippi River on May 03, 2023 in Albany, Illinois.
Did you know the Illinois and Iowa produce more than a quarter of the nation’s corn and soybeans?
Farmer Marion Kujawa looks over an ear of corn picked from one of his fields on July 16, 2012 near Ashley, Illinois. The field from which the corn was picked has yielded more than 180 bushels of corn per acre in the past, but was expected to get less than 15 bushels per acre from the 2012 drought-damaged crop.
According to reports, the devastating impact of a prolonged drought on farmers in the Midwest has now become a reality. More than 80% of corn and soybean crops in Illinois and Iowa, and surrounding agricultural states, are experiencing drought conditions. The drought has expanded rapidly throughout the region, doubling in size throughout the first week of June, resulting in significantly less rainfall than normal. Eastern Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, and Wisconsin are expected to face arid conditions until at least September.
Corn dead from drought sits in a field August 4, 2012. More than half of the counties in the United States were designated disaster areas, mostly due to drought conditions throughout the Midwest.
The dire situation has led to struggles for farmers, with many fearing a complete loss of their crops without substantial rainfall. In Missouri, nearly 16% of the state is suffering from extreme drought conditions, leading ranchers to sell off cattle prematurely due to a lack of food and water. The impact is not limited to crops alone, as low water levels in the upper Mississippi River basin have led to disruptions in barge traffic and increased transportation costs.
Lack of rain along the Mississippi River provides near record low levels which is wreaking havoc with barge traffic, driving up shipping prices and threatening crop exports and fertilizer shipments for soybean and corn harvests.
While farmers and scientists remain hopeful for a potential meteorological rebound, the uncertainty of the future underscores the urgent need for relief from the devastating drought conditions in the Midwest. Unfortunately, climate models are currently predicting more extreme jumps between wet and dry periods.
A corn plant grows in a field parched by drought on July 26, 2012 near Olmsted, Illinois. The field, farmed by Kevin Ulrich, was one of several in the drought stricken region of Southern Illinois that were visited by officials from the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Farm and Foreign Agriculture Services (FFAS) department and Farm Service Agency (FSA). Seventy percent of Illinois, the nation's number two corn producing state, was classified as experiencing some level of drought in 2012.
It just rained; will it get better?
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, areas in the South Midwest have been a mixed bag across the Region. Recent heavy rains improved conditions in significant parts of Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana, with some localized improvements in parts of Illinois, Missouri, and Wisconsin. In some cases, it was extremely localized. There was a sharp gradient between areas with copious rainfall and neighboring areas that received little or none. This creates a sharp difference between some areas of severe to exceptional drought, and others that are only mildly impacted by dryness.
Exceptional drought (D4) persisted in central Missouri while D3 covered sizeable sections of central and northeastern Missouri, southeastern Iowa, and both northern and southern parts of Wisconsin. In addition, new areas of extreme drought (D3) were assessed in parts of east-central and southeastern Minnesota.
Agricultural impacts have been observed region-wide. Almost three-quarters of pastures and rangelands in the state of Missouri are in poor or very poor condition, as are one-third of their corn crop and 28 percent of their soybean crop. In addition, 22 percent of both the corn and soybean crops in Illinois are poor or very poor, and 15 to 20 percent of soybeans elsewhere are poor or very poor.
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