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Only three percent of Iowa’s corn acreage has been planted, according to the Iowa Crops and Weather Report released Monday by the USDA National Agricultural Statistical Services (NASS).

Last year at the same time, 61 percent of the corn crop had been planted. The five-year average is 28 percent.

The report from NASS said that wet and cold conditions suspended field work last week and that a few producers are concerned about having to re-plant fields if corn does not germinate and develop.

Only one-half day last week was suitable for field work, according to the report.

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As of Monday, 8 percent of Iowa’s corn acreage had been planted, which compares with 82 percent a year ago and the five-year average of 48 percent, according to the weekly crop report issued by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.

Dan Gaffney, who started planting his 52nd corn crop Sunday on his farm near Lamont, said he was surprised how much the soil dried out over the weekend. “Lots of wind and a little sun on Sunday really helped,” he said.

Until planters started rolling this week, farmers were “starting to get a little worried,” said Jim Fawcett, an ISU Extension field agronomist based in Iowa City.

Their big concern, he said, is the loss of yield potential, which begins to decline dramatically after May 20.

After that date, the average yield loss is about 10 percent, said Fawcett. “By the end of May, the average loss can be as much as 30 percent,” he said.

With corn prices at record levels, farmers are even more reluctant than usual to suffer yield losses, said Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey, who, like most Iowa farmers, just started planting corn this week.

“I’m not nervous, not yet,” said Mark Recker, 41, who until the weekend had yet to plant any of the 1,400 acres he farms near Arlington in Fayette County.

Last year, which was characterized by optimum planting conditions after mid-April, Recker started planting corn on April 20 — his earliest corn planting date since he started farming in 1994.

“This year, it just feels like you’re only going to get short windows, so you’d better be ready,” he said.

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Less than a year after the worst drought in a generation destroyed one-third of Russia’s wheat crop and sent global food prices surging, more adverse weather is damaging fields from North America to Europe to Asia.

Corn planting in the U.S., the world’s largest grower, is advancing at half of last year’s pace because of excess rain, government data show. The Canadian Wheat Board said fields are so muddy that only 3 percent of grain has been sown, compared with 40 percent normally. At the same time, drought left the Kansas wheat crop in the worst shape since 1996, and dry spells are threatening crops in France, Western Australia and China.

While the growing season is still early in the Northern Hemisphere, corn futures as much as doubled in the past year as U.S. stockpiles headed for a 15-year low, and wheat is up 55 percent from a year earlier. The United Nations says global food costs advanced in April for the ninth time in 10 months, and higher commodity expenses led food makers including General Mills Inc. and McDonald’s Corp. to boost prices to consumers.

“We needed everything to go perfectly, but there’s really a lot of potential for problems, based on these weather issues,” said Sterling Liddell, a vice president for food and agribusiness research at Rabo AgriFinance in St. Louis, who expects corn to reach a record $8 a bushel if conditions worsen. “It could be a very explosive situation, because we’re already so tight.”

Reduced Inventory
In a report tomorrow, the U.S. Department of Agriculture probably will cut its forecast of global corn reserves before this year’s Northern Hemisphere harvest to 122.5 million metric tons, the lowest in four years, according to a Bloomberg News survey of 14 analysts. The U.S. is the world’s biggest exporter of corn, soybeans, wheat and cotton.

While the survey showed corn inventories probably will rebound to 125.4 million tons next year, as higher prices spur farmers to plant more, some analysts expected further declines before the 2012 harvest.

Weather, especially in the U.S., may be the “swing factor” for rebuilding global grain inventories, said Dan Manternach, a wheat economist with Doane Advisory Services, an agricultural research company in St. Louis.

“Things are so tight, if Mother Nature so much as hiccups on adverse weather, it can be unusually bullish for commodities,” Manternach said...

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Dry weather in France and Germany and the U.K.’s hottest April in at least 352 years are threatening crops across the European Union, producer of one-fifth of the world’s wheat.

“We’re definitely going to be producing less grain than we can consume,” said Andrew Dewing, the owner of Dewing Grain in Aylsham, England. “That doesn’t bode well for next year.”

Parts of Western Australia have had the lowest rainfall on record for the past 16 months, according to the country’s Bureau of Meteorology. The government in Manitoba, Canada, has declared a state of emergency because of floods. Wheat output in China, the world’s biggest consumer, may decline for a second straight year because of dry conditions, Tommy Xiao, an analyst at Shanghai JC. Intelligence Co., said on May 5.

China Drought
Drought conditions may persist in wheat-growing areas from China, the world’s largest grower and consumer, to the U.S. and Western Europe, hurting crops and lifting prices, British Weather Services said on May 6.

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As of May 15, only 7 percent of Ohio's corn crop had been planted, the USDA said.

That's 76 percentage points behind last year, and 63 points behind the five-year average, said Peter Thomison, Ohio State University Extension corn specialist.

He echoed Yoder's estimate of yield losses if planting takes place after the first week of May, based on the shorter growing season, threat of disease, insect pressure and the potential of drought later in the growing season. That increases to two bushels per acre per day by the end of May.

"It's staggering," Thomison said. "Farmers have to make very tough decisions.

"This is a critical week" for growers."

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Weather for central Ohio ...

Rained (morning and then thunderstorm in evening) yesterday.

30% chance of rain today
80% chance of rain tomorrow
70% chance of rain Thursday
60% chance of rain Friday
40% chance of rain Saturday
30% chance of rain Sunday

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Hope for a successful corn crop in Ohio is dwindling with every passing rainy day.

As of Sunday, Ohio farmers had 11 percent of planned corn crops in the ground. They had 87 percent at this time last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Two percent have emerged, compared with 72 percent last year.

The 2006 to 2010 average amount of crops is 80 percent planted by May 22, and 58 percent emerged.

Ideally, corn crops should be planted by May 15, said Jack Fisher, president of the Ohio Farm Bureau. Farmers will plant up until June 5, but as the days go by, the yield from them gets lower.

Late-planted corn also is more sensitive to drought stress, more prone to disease and insect problems and more likely to not be mature by the first frost, according to a newsletter from The Ohio State University Extension.

Mike Gallagher, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Wilmington, said the next 10 days will continue to be rainy, possibly with one or two dry days.

Fisher said it takes five or six dry days in a row for optimal planting. "Farmers are all prepared, if we get the dry weather they can catch up fairly quickly," he said.

With crop failure comes economic repercussions.

"The global demand for corn is at an unprecedented level, and the U.S. is the leading supplier of corn," said Anthony Bush, a Morrow County corn, soybean and wheat farmer. "If the corn crop is down, that means higher prices for feed, which translates into higher prices at the market."

If Ohio crops fail, the national markets will take a hit - but that will be mitigated by strong crop production in Iowa and Nebraska, said Jack Fisher, president of the Ohio Farm Bureau. The weather also has been unfavorable for crops in Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia, Fisher said.

It would still mean higher costs for Ohio companies who use the product for corn or ethanol. They will have to ship it in, said Natalie Lehner, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Corn and Wheat Growers Association, resulting in higher costs.

"When it's in less of a supply the price goes up. If you can't get it locally you have to pay to bring it in by rail," Lehner said.

Lehner said those who can't produce corn will turn to soybeans, and may also have to use their crop insurance to recoup losses.

Bush said it has been a challenging spring. He started planting two weeks ago, and had four dry days to work in the fields. He got his last seeds in Sunday.

Bush sits on the board of the Ohio Corn and Wheat Growers Association, and said some other members have not been as lucky - some have no corn planted, he said.

The farmers will survive, Bush said. Most plan for bad crop seasons and have a risk management plan in place.

"Farmers are very resilient," Bush said. "They deal with the weather every day. No one is more optimistic than the farmer - it could always be worse."

Jessica Alaimo: 740-328-8576 or jalaimo@centralohio.com

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...With Northern Europe facing its worst drought since 1976, politicians in the West are expecting protests from farmers, consumer discontent and a strain on budgets.

Third World nations are braced for riots as Europe's heat wave creates a rise in food prices and drives millions deeper into poverty.

"We are in a situation of crisis and of crisis management," said Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, the French Ecology Minister.

Meteorologists say that Northern Europe has had 50 per cent less rain than normal over the past two months, while temperatures have been 4C higher than usual...