Acres that U.S. farmers were unable to plant have more than tripled from the same period last year as extreme weather wreaks havoc on fields, according to the August report from the Farm Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Prevented planting acres–or the acres of insured crops that can’t be planted because of disasters including flooding and drought–stood at 6.4 million. That’s up from 2.1 million in 2021. Prevented planting acres of corn jumped to more than 3 million acres, from 639,000 acres in 2021, according to the USDA. Wheat shot up to more than 1 million acres from nearly 300,000 acres last year.
The news comes at the start of the key U.S. crop tour. And initial views of farm fields aren’t leading to any optimism. Early stops in southeastern South Dakota show a lack of rain has stressed corn and soybean plants, hurting potential yields, Bloomberg reports. Both corn and soybeans were below average at the initial stops in South Dakota on the western leg of the four-day Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour. Corn yield potential was estimated at 118.6 bushels per acre, well below the three-year average of 161.8 bushels. Soybean pod counts stood at 792.5, below the 1,073 average. Some corn fields had been cut for silage, a sign of a poor-quality crop. “I heard it was dry, but I’m shocked it’s as bad as it is,” says Nathan Serbus, a Minnesota farmer and crop scout on the western leg, told Bloomberg.
Some fields in Nebraska and South Dakota are so dry that corn plants aren’t producing ears of corn. The stalks, which should be about 8 feet tall by this time of year, are withered, browning, and short. Some only stand about 5 feet tall. “Corn is a disaster in some cases,” Serbus continued. Serbus estimates that 95% percent of the fields he saw on Monday were “extremely bad.”
Not surprisingly grain prices have climbed–and so have the prices of commodity funds. The Teucrium Corn Fund ETF (CORN) is up 4.01% today, August 23, as of noon New York time. The ETF is a member of my Volatility Portfolio on my subscription site JubakAM.com where it’s down 8.45% since I added it on June 17, 2022. The Teucrium Wheat Fund ETF (WEAT) is up 2.58% as of noon today. That ETF is a member of my Jubak Picks Portfolio. It’s down 27.26% since I added the position on May 25, 2022.
