Rains help southern US wheat, but halt corn sowings

March 24th, 2015

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Category: Grains, Oilseeds

Wheats-and-Cereals450x299(AgriMoney) – Rainfall in the southern US refreshed dryness-hit winter wheat crops, but has hampered early progress on spring plantings and fieldwork – and reportedly left parts of Mississippi at their wettest since at least the 1980s.

The condition of US winter wheat in Texas improved by 4 points to 55% in the week to Sunday, in terms of the proportion viewed as being in “good” or “excellent” condition, US Department of Agriculture data showed.

“Winter wheat in the Northern High and Low Plains continued to progress, due to warm temperatures,” USDA scouts in the state said, also noting that most areas of Texas “observed 1 or more inches of moisture” last week, with some areas receiving more than 3 inches.

In neighbouring Oklahoma, where areas around the Texas border also received rains, the proportion of wheat rated good or excellent also rose by 4 points, to 44%.

In Kansas, the top wheat-producing state, which had only “light precipitation”, the wheat rating figure remained stable at 41%.

‘Saturated soils’

However, the southern rains, in making fields too wet for fieldwork, hampered sowings, with Texas corn seedings only 14% complete, well behind the average of 37% finished by then, and sorghum sowings 7% done – only one quarter of typical progress.

Producers in some areas “delayed planting sorghum due to wet field conditions”, USDA scouts said.

Further east in Louisiana, growers had planted only 1% of their corn as of Sunday – compared with an average of 48% by then, with the delay blamed on heavy rains.

“Saturated soils continue to delay corn and rice planting,” one USDA scout said, while another said that “rains continue to hamper field progress.

“A spring flush of weeks has emerged with the warmer weather conditions.”

‘Wetter than it has been in over 25 years’

It was a similar story too in Arkansas – where growers, who usually have 17% of corn sown, have yet to start – and in Mississippi, where plantings which are typically 11% completed by now have also yet to begin.

In both states, farmers could, on average, undertake fieldwork for only 0.6 days last week, thanks to the wet soils.

“Very wet conditions are preventing corn planting,” one USDA scout in Arkansas said, while one Mississippi peer reported talk from producers that the “group is wetter than it has been in over 25 years”.

Switch to soybeans?

The conditions have prompted some growers to hire crop sprayers for applying fertilizers, or weedkillers needed to clear land before sowing.

In parts of Arkansas, “row crop producers have applied some burn down applications with air plane,” the USDA said, while in parts of Mississippi “wheat was fertilized by plane this week, and a few fields had burn down herbicides applied by air”.

The extent of the rain has also prompted some talk of southern US farmers switching from corn to soybeans, which have a later sowing window, and so tend to be favoured in years with late planting seasons.

Influential crop analyst Michael Cordonnier, noting that it has been “too wet this spring” in the Mississippi Delta region and the mid-South, said that “if the corn planting continues to be delayed, farmers could switch some of their intended corn acreage to soybeans instead”.

This trend could be enhanced by a switch out of cotton, for which many farmers had seemed likely to drop for corn this year, but which may now be swapped for soybeans, Dr Cordonnier said.

West vs east

However, with southern states relatively small corn producers, markets are more keenly awaiting data on the opening of the planting window further north.

In fact, in western Corn Belt states such as Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota, dry weather “could result in an early start to spring planting”, Dr Cordonnier said,

“As a result of the drier conditions, the frost can come out of the ground faster and the soils can warm up faster compared to when the soils are saturated.”

However, in eastern Corn Belt states such as Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, “southern and eastern areas have been quite wet, so it probably will not be an early start to spring fieldwork in those areas”.

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