Concerns over a dry Corn Belt sent grain futures soaring overnight.
Nebraska, northern Missouri and basically all of Illinois faced two weeks of little to no rain. The U.S. Drought Monitor shows roughly 61 percent of Iowa is in a drought, despite the recent derecho storm. The area is expected to see rain today, but another severe.
Producers in the state are more concerned about the tons of biomass in cornfields which insurance companies have zeroed out.
According to Mark Licht, an agronomist with Iowa State University Extension, “We’re going to run five different pieces of tillage equipment through that field, so we can see how it’s going to work; one, going through through that residue, is it going to bunch up or not, and how well is it actually going to chop up, size that residue and what it’s going to look like after. So, we’re trying to get some really quick answers and respond as best we can here.”
They need that damaged crop to decompose before the next growing season.
Due south, President Trump visits the Texas and Louisiana coast to view the damage from Hurricane Laura.
“Hurricane Laura was a Category 4 storm... it was up to 175, almost 180, miles an hour,” the President said. “When it came in it was at 150 mph, at landfall, damaging thousands of homes and causing hundreds of road blockages and major power outages. I heard, I think this is correct, it was the most powerful storm coming in, hitting your land, in 150 years.”
That would be the 1856 “Last Island” storm, which resulted in many residents moving inland afterwords.
USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey adds, “That system, in the mid 19th century, virtually wiped out a resort town that no longer exists...”
Louisiana officials recall Hurricane Katrina from recent memory, but most of the damage from that storm was due to failing levees, which have since been repaired and strengthened.