La Nina in 2012 returns more wet weather to eastern Corn Belt

As the market watches the impact of La Nina on South American crops, Cornbelt farmers should also be watching the potential for lack of subsoil moisture when the 2012 crop is pushing down roots to tap needed water.  Many states are reporting subsoil moisture that is well short of normal as the ground prepares to freeze for the winter and shut out any precipitation.  What can the 2011 La Nina teach us about 2012?

La Nina is the temperature dynamic in the equatorial Pacific which cools or warms the waters that influence temperature and moisture trends across the US, as well as the agricultural areas of Argentina and Brazil.  But while South American crops are suffering from lack of moisture and increasing temperature, what impact will the La Nina have as far as precipitation for the US during the outset of the 2012 growing season.  The Climate Prediction Center of the National Weather Service provides monthly maps of temperature and precipitation, based on La Nina, and its cousin, El Nino.  This Yin and Yang duo currently is pushing temperatures higher across the southern half of the US and pushing precipitation higher into the eastern Cornbelt.  (Noah has already expanded his ark building business throughout Ohio in anticipation of another wet spring.)  However, about planting time and throughout the growing season, the chances for excess precipitation return to even while temperatures remain above normal.

As we approach the early part of 2012, the drought across Texas and Oklahoma and into Kansas is one of the worst agricultural disasters, according to Nebraska State Climatologist Al Dutcher.  While moisture was scarce to non-existent in that part of the country, the eastern Cornbelt was quite wet and caused both planting and harvesting delays, with agronomic problems that included shallow root systems for field crops.  Dutcher says the wet conditions in the fall of 2010 were repeated by La Nina in the fall of 2011 and those will continue into the spring.

On the other hand, the northern and western Cornbelt were dry during the latter part of the growing season into the fall tillage calendar.  That too, was a parallel of the fall of 2010, except for the lack of some heavy rain in southern Minnesota and northern Iowa in 2010 which was not repeated in 2011.  Dutcher says, “A broad area of southern Minnesota, northeastern Nebraska, eastern South Dakota and northwest Iowa has received less than a quarter of normal precipitation during the past 90 days.

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