(Lakefield, Mn.)– Drought concerns continue to grow with each passing day of no rain. And now there’s worry the ongoing dry conditions could result in lower than expected yields when harvest time rolls around. Jim Nesseth of Extended Ag Services in Lakefield says soybeans could be impacted the most…
“I don’t think those flatter pods that need some decent moisture to fill, I just don’t think that will happen unless we get some additional moisture. It doesn’t mean that we’re going to have a bad crop or anything but I just think it’s going to take some of that top end off of that. On the corn side of the rotation, I feel pretty confident on the heavier soils. You know, corn is a deep rooted plant and so I think that it’s going to be able to manage that subsoil reserves that we’ve had, and so I think we’ll continue to have some really good grain fill on the corn.”
Nesseth says the dry conditions, coupled with some other factors, are starting to have a positive impact on markets…
“Yes, I think that’s an underlying support there, is this dryness. I don’t think the beans are going to finish out as high as we hoped and then of course with the big winds that we had, you know, a week, 10 days ago, we know, that’s impacted the markets a certain degree and exports have been good, so it kind of feels like the markets have kind of bottomed and maybe they’ll start working up, but still, big picture, it looks like a big crop.”
The derecho that impacted central and eastern Iowa earlier this month destroyed millions of acres of crops.
