USA - In the last several weeks, farmers in the Northern Plains have been battered by blizzards, winter storms, high winds, and extreme flooding. These weather phenomena have delayed farmers from plantings in high-producing crop regions. Every week plantings are delayed, the harvest yield shrinks, and this comes at a precarious time as the global food supply chain is fracturing.
Private weather forecasters and ag specialist BAMWX warned about delayed plantings across the Northern Plains to Midwest to the Ohio Valley. Some farmers might not be able to plant until at least May as widespread above-average moisture, and widespread well below average temperatures inhibit farmers from working their fields. BAMWX's chief meteorologist Kirk Hinz provides a weather model looking out two weeks and shows more of the same: below-average temperatures and higher precipitation.
The risk is that delayed plantings could extend well into the first half of May. Spring has so far been filled with chaos and uncertainties for American farmers. Many cannot work in their fields because tractors would get stuck, fields are underwater, and saturated soils make for a bad growing environment. Also, cold weather disrupts plant nutrient intake and can damage seedlings very early in the growing cycle, which may cause premature death.