The amount of US corn and soybean production impacted by drought isn’t getting any worse, but it’s not getting any better either.
The latest weekly update of the US drought monitor showed about 23% of national corn production was being impacted by drought as of Tuesday, basically unchanged since the end of March. Soybeans were no different, with about 22% of the production area impacted by drought, also generally unchanged over the past three weeks (see maps below).
According to the drought monitor itself, roughly 26% of the American Midwest was being impacted by drought as of Tuesday, with virtually all of it in the more western production areas. About two-thirds of the No. 1 corn state of Iowa remained in some form of drought as of Tuesday, along with about 44% of Minnesota. On the other hand, drought was only impacting about 7% of Illinois – all of it in the southern tip of the state – while Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan were all mostly drought-free.
Spring wheat area impacted by drought has also held relatively steady over the past few weeks at 25-26%, with the largest production state of North Dakota at about 17%.
Meanwhile, winter wheat area in drought ticked modestly higher, increasing to around 24% from 17-18% the past few weeks.
The portion of top producer Kansas impacted by drought sharply increased, jumping to 53% as of Tuesday versus 29% a week earlier.
