Ag Weather Forum

Year-to-year comparisons on soil moisture for the northwestern Corn Belt offer some interesting details regarding where we might find ourselves going into field work season in 2015. The driest area of the Midwest is the northwestern sector, and so I'm using Minnesota as the example state for the area.

As we look at Drought Monitor conditions, we note that the soil moisture scene a year ago was actually less over the primary row crop counties than we're seeing now, at the end of calendar year 2014. A year ago, the primary corn and soybean counties of Minnesota generally had Drought Monitor level I (Moderate Drought) conditions in place. That drier trend had begun during a dry and very warm to hot spell in August 2013, and lasted through the winter and the first half of spring.

Drought conditions, while not getting much worse, did not get better, either, until mid to late April. Then, with the mixed blessing of a stormy late spring and heavy rainfall, drought conditions eased and the state became officially drought-free by the week of June 24, 2014.

That drought-free state of affairs ran until early August, when dryness began in the southern portion of the state. However, only patches of dry conditions were noted until early November, when most of the state was judged to have Drought-Zero or Abnormally Dry conditions. That was basically a run of four and one-half months where the large majority of the state was drought-free.

Now, we come to the end of the calendar year, when the Drought-Zero category is in effect, but almost no Drought Level I or Moderate Drought shows up.

The point of this discussion is that, while there is some dryness in the northwestern Corn Belt, the situation is 1) not as dry as it was a year ago at the same time; and 2) capable of changing quickly during the growing season.

So, we should take note of the drier areas in the northwestern Corn Belt. But it's too early to place a great deal of concern on this detail. After all, there's still 4 1/2 months to go before corn planting.

Bryce

Twitter @BAndersonDTN

(ES)

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