Wonky May weather across North America didn’t impact crop prices as farmers hoped it would as planting still went ahead the same as an average year.
Farmers taking to Twitter in May would have seen stories, videos and photos from their U.S. brethren showing how bad the weather has been. Wyoming and Texas reported snowfall in mid-May. The State Journal-Register in Illinois wrote on May 22 that “Nebraska’s corn fields are so flooded that farmers are posting videos of themselves wakeboarding. In the past 30 days, about 40 percent of the Midwest got twice the amount of normal rainfall, with soils saturated from Arkansas to Ohio.”
Farmers hoping the weather would delay planting and force a jump in crop prices were disappointed.
The USDA’s May 22 planting progress report showed U.S. farmers in the 18 main agricultural states had 84 per cent of their corn planted as of May 21, just below the five-year average of 85 per cent. Soybeans were 53 per cent planted, ahead of the five-year average of 52 per cent.
“That’s at least part of the reason that prices haven’t been able to rally,” said Steve Kell, a cash crop farmer in Simcoe County and Parrish and Heimbecker grain buyer. “Ohio is way behind. Everybody else is in great shape, and that’s what the markets are paying attention to.”
