As spring planting gets underway, Midwest farmers are also growing more concerned about drought. It is already impacting many areas in the Corn Belt.
Eric Snodgrass works for Nutrien Ag Solutions. He says in Wisconsin, it has been a tale of two stories for farmers.
“If you took the snowmobile up north this year you were happy. But if you stay down here in the southern part of the state, there are some places that had up to 15 to 20 inches in deficit compared to average on snow. That’s got a lot of people thinking if that snow’s not there, what’s going to melt in and kind of recharge the soil? So, there’s concern about the drought that kind of moved out of Iowa into southern Wisconsin being something that might stick around into the early part of the spring.”
Snodgrass says the latest data suggests La Nina will hang on through spring. That increases the risk of drought expansion, and of course, as the temperatures warm, the threat of severe weather also increases.
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