U.S. Midwest Floods Delay Planting

Apr 22, 2013

Rain triggered floods postpone corn planting after drought

Much of the U.S. Midwest is experiencing floods, which was spurred by heavy rains last week and a forecast predicating rain into Tuesday. These rains are causing farmers to delay corn planting. The largest corn-growing states, Iowa and Illinois, are under flood warnings along the Mississippi and Illinois rivers.

The April 17 and 18th rain storms dropped 5.4 inches in Chicago and about 6 inches in eastern Iowa which triggered floods further south. The rain flooding is impacting farmers who are still recovering from last year’s drought. The drought was deemed the worst drought in 50 years, which caused damage to crops.

U.S. Department of Agriculture data shows that corn planting in the two largest producing states was 2% complete as of April 14, which is behind last year’s pace of 16%. The cold, rainy weather is reducing the sum of corn acreage that would have otherwise been planted, which will likely increase the sum of acreage soybeans to be planted – since soybeans can be sown later than corn.

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