How wet is Iowa?

[Wind]

According to a state climatologist a record amount of precipitation has fallen for a state wide average of 16.4".  This breaks the the previous record of 15.5" back in 1892 for the month of March April and May, and more rain forecast for May.  He went on to say that 85% of Iowa's corn is planted and 40% of the beans.  If you think I'm all wet, you are very correct.

PS

It does look like we might have a few hours of planting the hill tops next week before the rain moves in again.  Even the most positive Iowa farmers are wondering when their crops will go in.  I wonder what kind of a corn crop my great grandfather grew in 1892?

[marketeye]

Wind,

I should know. But, isn't it true that even in 1993 (flood year) that the market could only rally until June, actually July, and that's it? I know that this year's planting pace is even slower than 1993. But, wow, if the market couldn't catch fire then, what will it take?

1993 Corn chart

Courtesy of Barcharts.com

Mike

[Hobbyfarmer]

Just saw an advertisement  for pontoon boats with a two point planter hitch with bulk seed storage onboard.

[Shaggy98]

[rswfarms]

It is worse than 1993 in North-Central Iowa and that was a bad, bad, year. In 1993, the average corn yield for Iowa was 83bu/acre, yes, that is 83bu/acre, not a 183bu/acre. There will be alot of corn that will never get planted in my part of Iowa. Some guys are going to switch from 105 to 112 day corn to 92 day corn and still try to get it in on the fields that had fall-applied nitrogen. Otherwise, our only choice is to try beans. This is turning into a NIGHTMARE!!!!!!!!! And I am not kidding, we are all going over our Crop Insurance, plus I am in the ACRE Target Revenue per acre Goverment Program. Guess I better review the ACRE Rules too just to be safe.

[Slim123]

Saw a Amishman plowing corn stocks today in North Iowa. The Belguins were slipping and sliding.

[teaspoon73]

  Mike did that corn chart go from 1.75 rallying up to 2.50. Probably had a 2 billion bu carryover, from 1992.

[rayjenkins]

Couple of things about 92/93

Iowa was (and still is) the only state to see corn production drop by over one billion bushels year to year

1992    1.904 byn

1993      .880 byn

The severity of the losses in '93 were not apparent until the November crop, which set off a sizable rally lasting into January.....abandonment was much higher than expected, and the field losses due to the rubbery cobs were quite evident in harvested fields because they looked like a cover crop had been sown....NASS folks will tell you they missed the field loss issues severely because they were using their tried and true methodology, which failed them under the unique circumstances...

Ray J

[vrbuck]

Don't forget 0-92 when millions of crop acres where plowed under.  Those that took the program collected full insurance and the government check.  They turned out better then those that harvested their crop.

[c-x-1]

interesting about comparison to 1892---that was the beginning of a 3 year drought cycle.