Price gains may continue for corn and soybeans (already up 12 percent this year) thanks to the lingering winter weather causing planting delays, according to a new AccuWeather.com Spring 2014 Planting Forecast?report.?
It notes, via MarketWatch, that??while the South will be right on schedule weather-wise for prime planting with looming frost concerns, delays will become more and more likely with every mile heading north.”
AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dale Mohler added,??Damp soil leftover from winter, melting snow and lagging temperatures mean a lot of places are going to have a slow planting period across the Midwest, northern Plains and the Great Lakes.?
For the Plains and the Midwest, their largest crops include soy beans and corn–usually planted in the months of April and May; however, delays may ensure as soil temperatures “must?warm enough to support whatever crop you are planting,? said Mohler.
What does this mean? Corn will look for 50 degrees Fahrenheit or above while soybeans are 54 degrees Fahrenheit or greater. However,with the record amounts of snow and cold, concerns are lingering over potentially frozen grounds in the Upper Midwest and Ohio Valley for plantings.?
AccuWeather believes this could take the ground longer to thaw, hence keeping soil temperatures at lower levels for an extended time.?
However, other analysts sounded a little more optimistic on Tuesday. While?arctic air has hit the Midwest this week, its should be gone by the weekend, with rising temperatures softening the soil. By April 10, planting could begin in the southern Midwest, where “soil moisture is adequate,” said Tomm Pfitzenmaier, a partner at Summit Commodity Brokerage in Des Moines, Iowa, to the Wall Street Journal.
Along with the cold weather affecting areas in the country, not helping matters is the drought in?western Texas to central California. This is also “taking a toll” on this year’s planting season, added AccuWeather.?