The U.S.D.A. crop report says farmers were only able to get into the fields four of seven days last week due to wet conditions.
State climatologist Justin Glisan says the outlook for early June shows the run of wetter than normal days cold drop off. “It’s trending to near normal precipitation as we get into the eight to 14-day period, so if farmers haven’t gotten planted it looks like we’re going to see windows to get those planters out there and get finished up,” he says.
The crop report shows about 7% of the corn is left to be planted — which is almost two weeks behind last year and five days behind the five-year average. Eighty-four percent of the expected soybean crop has been planted, which is 12 days behind last year. The southwest and south-central regions have the most corn and bean planting left as both are just below 90% complete for corn and below 80% for beans.
Glisan says it’s not certain if the drier conditions will continue through the whole month of June. “We’re seeing a warmer signal. So we should see warmer than average temperatures potentially in June,” Glisan says. “No clear signal and precipitation equal chances of below above below or near average. So if you looked at that initial outlook that was issued in the middle of May, we were seeing an elevated wet signal. So we’re kind of pulling back on that.”
May saw rainfall that was around two-and-a-half inches above normal, keeping the wet spring trend going. “Little over 14 inches above average and that’s almost four inches above the climatological 30 year average, so also looking like March, April, May of 2024 will be in the top 10 wettest,” Glisan says. Glisan says we are in the midst of a switch in weather patterns that may make for a warmer than normal summer.
“And in years in which we’ve shifted from strong El Nino’s that gave us a very warm winter to a weak to moderate La’Nina, we do see some semblance of a warmer June, July, and August overall so that wet that warm signal I think should be covering the state as well,” he says. The crop report says 81 percent of the corn that’s planted has emerged — which is six days behind last year. Corn condition is rated 73 percent good to excellent. Sixty percent of the soybean crop has emerged, one week behind last year. The first soybean condition rating of the season showed 59 percent rated good, and 14 percent excellent.
