By JANE HOUIN
Ohio Correspondent

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Continual rain showers and thunderstorms through April have resulted in less-than-ideal planting conditions to date. According to Accuweather.com, this week may see more of the same weather pattern, with additional heavy rain conditions in the forecast.

According to AccuWeather.com agricultural meteorologist Dale Mohler, April’s repeating storm patterns continued from Nebraska to Indiana, a zone where farmers are typically busy planting corn at this point in the season. Multiple drenching storm systems, with extensive cloud cover and below-average temperatures, however, affected the area throughout April and continue into early May.

A significant part of this region has received from 150-200 percent of normal rainfall this month, which has many fields ranging from wet to saturated. If fields are too wet, farmers cannot get their equipment in to plant.

“If the rain happens as forecast, the corn planting will substantially fall behind,” Mohler said. “Last year we had a two-week stretch of dry weather during the middle of April which allowed corn planting to occur at a near-record pace.”
More flooding is inevitable from Arkansas to the Ohio Valley, since the already waterlogged region will not be able to handle the additional rain that was to pour down through yesterday, according to Accuweather.com senior meteorologist Kristina Pydynowski. The potential existed for 3-5 inches of rain to soak the corridor from northeastern Texas to the Ohio Valley into Tuesday.
Two years ago, wet conditions early in the spring had corn planting behind in many areas; however, later in the spring and summer, ideal conditions led to one of the best corn crops ever.

“While corn planting is running behind a year ago, the progress report for the week ending April 22 showed our corn 9 percent planted, versus last year’s 46 percent – and the average is 23 percent planted,” said Mike Myers, grain marketing manager with Sunrise Cooperative in Fremont, Ohio.

“This is not far off from two years past in 2009, when only 62 percent of the corn crop nationwide was planted as of May 17. This is something that can most assuredly be accomplished this year – and in 2009, the corn yield of 164.7 was a new record for the United States.”

This spring thus far has had a constant grind of rain every few days. Many of the larger rivers are already at moderate to major flood stage from Indiana to northeastern Arkansas. This includes the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. The level of the Ohio River at Cairo, Ill., stood at a record level of 59.97 feet Sunday afternoon, and is expected to continue to rise to above 60 feet the next few days.

“Typically in May, strong sunshine, warmer temperatures and longer intervals of rain-free weather greatly boost evaporation rates,” said AccuWeather.com senior meteorologist and Midwest native Jim Andrews. “However, if the relentless wet weather continues through May and into June, then there may be issues with not only getting the crop planted in time, but also disease issues raised by wet conditions of the crops that are planted.”

Myers said it’s not time to get overly concerned – yet. “With the memory of what was accomplished in 2009 and the size of the planting units that today’s producers are utilizing, we can plant this crop in a very short period of time,” he said. “Another factor that we sometimes overlook is that our seed companies are improving the performance packages of the hybrids that we are planting today, on a yearly basis.”

Mohler and Andrews concurred that a delay in planting does not necessarily mean the crop will be poor or low in yield. But, pre-planting jitters are showing up in the marketplace, according to Myers.

“The market is very nervous over the fact that our farmers need to plant a corn crop of nearly 92 million acres or more for us to begin to rebuild the historically tight old crop inventories,” he said. “And for that reason, the market has built a premium into the new crop bids to keep farmers interested in accomplishing that feat.”

Even if rain were to fall at a normal rate for the remainder of the spring, the consequences of what has already happened in the Midwest will affect the way of life, property, agriculture and travel, shipping and navigation for weeks in the region, said Accuweather.com expert senior meteorologist Alex Sosnowski.
A general 6-12 inches of rain fell on portions of southeastern Missouri, southern Illinois, western Kentucky, Arkansas, Indiana, Ohio and western Tennessee last month. There have been much higher amounts locally; Cincinnati has received over a foot of rain, which is around four times its normal rainfall for the entire month, Sosnowski said.

The AccuWeather.com 2011 Summer Forecast will be released to the general public in early May.