How will La Nina weather affect crops in Brazil, Argentina?
How does La Nina affect the crop in South America? “What I’m watching for is: are we going to get a little drier period during the next month to a month and a half on their newly-planted soybean crop down there? There is not a strong relationship between dryness in South America and a La Nina event, but it is something that has occurred from time to time in the past down there.” Many Iowa farmers are skeptical of the recent USDA crop report estimates. As the numbers for the 2010 U.S. corn and soybean crop came in each month this fall, the numbers have continued to shrink. Has there been a shift at USDA, as to how they gather the information for their crop report? Has something changed? “No, I wouldn’t say that,” says Hart. “But when you look at some of the data USDA has released with its numbers, it does tell the story of why we’ve seen that yield continue to shift. They release data on the amount of ears per acre they see in the field and the weight they are seeing per ear each month—
