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Most U.S. corn and soybean acreage at risk for flood damage

A University of Kansas analyst says more than half of the corn and soybean acreage in the U.S. remains at risk for flooding this spring.  Dr. Jude Kastens says, “Given how wet things are already, and with planting slated to begin in the coming weeks, we could see some serious delays.”

Kastens compared USDA crop acreage data to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s spring flood risk map, which shows the entire eastern U.S. at risk for major, moderate, or minor flooding. “If you tally all of this information up, we can see about 55% of the 2018 corn crop footprint falls in those two highest risk categories.”

And the picture is about the same for U.S. soybean acres. “We have a total of 60%, so a little more of the U.S. soybean crop has it’s footprint that falls inside those higher risk categories.”

NOAA says the states with the highest flood risk are Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, northern Missouri, western Illinois, and the Dakotas.

Kastens participated in a weather webinar hosted by Planalytics Monday.