Hot, Dry Conditions Threaten US Midwest Soybeans
Date: 02-Aug-07
Country: US
Author: Mark Weinraub
The crop was in pretty good shape as it began the pod-setting stage, which determines how big the crop will be at harvest, but persistent dry conditions could cut into total production.
"Despite (farmers) planting late, they (soybeans) have recovered OK," said Palle Pedersen, extension agronomist for soybeans at Iowa State University. "If we can get an inch or two inches of rain in the next two weeks then we will be in really good shape but right now it looks really dry."
The US Agriculture Department said Monday that 51 percent of the soybean crop was setting pods, compared to 50 percent in late July 2006. The five-year average for late July is 41 percent.
The crop was rated 58 percent good to excellent, down from 61 percent a week earlier as the hot weather began to take its toll. Traders had been expecting soybean ratings to be steady to down 2 percentage points from the previous week.
Although the conditions had started to deteriorate in the field, there was still time for soybeans to recover.
"The August rains are pretty critical for soybeans," said Greg Shaner, an extension specialist at Purdue University in Indiana. "I think if we get some rains in certain areas they have a greater recovery capacity."
In Iowa, which traditionally produces the most soybeans of any state, farmers were busy fighting off pests such as the soybean aphid and bean leaf beetles, Pedersen said. But most growers have been closely monitoring insect populations since planting season so they were able to start spraying their fields before much damage was done.
Soybeans in Iowa were rated 66 percent good to excellent, USDA said.
Insects were not as big of a problem in fields east of the Mississippi River. The hot weather in those areas may have kept aphids from reproducing, Shaner said.
Serious aphid infestations were expected around the Midwest this year. Aphids have caused problem in soybean-growing states every other year since the crop-eating insect was first discovered in the United States in 2000.