Floods take heavy toll on U.S. grain crops; Impact likely to be felt on food shelves

[marmar]

from MarketWatch:



Floods take heavy toll on U.S. grain crops
Impact likely to be felt on food shelves
By Matt Andrejczak, MarketWatch


SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Devastating floods in Iowa and torrential rain in other Midwestern states have taken a heavy toll on crops, throwing the door wide open to higher costs on the farm and the nation's food shelves.

Hardest hit is corn and soybeans from some of the country's top-producing states, Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Both grains are at the foundation of the food pyramid, used extensively as primary ingredients and as livestock feed.

Farmers, traders, and agricultural experts are scrambling to assess the impact of heavy rains that over the past week have swept through parts of Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Minnesota. The storms have flooded rivers throughout Iowa and raised the Mississippi River to dangerously high levels.

Darin Newsom, grains analyst at market-watcher DTN Ag, said preliminary guesswork is pegging lost acreage from the storms at 1 million to 3 million acres.

This could deplete as much as 3.5% of U.S. corn projected to be planted this year, based on the latest crop estimates from the U.S. Agriculture Department.

"We're looking at very serious reductions," Newsom said.

The USDA, which is taking a survey of farmers now, will update its corn acreage estimate on June 30. Prior to the devastating storms this week, "We know the crop had lost some potential," said USDA grains analyst Jerry Norton.

Fallout from the storm poses risks to the global corn market. The U.S., by far, is the world's largest exporter of corn. On the upside, corn production in China, Russia, and the Ukraine has gone well so far this year. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/floods-take-heavy-toll-us/story.aspx?guid=%7B1AF9415D%2D72EC%2D4454%2DA17A%2D89ECDAD5675E%7D

[kestrel91316]

1. ........like we haven't ALREADY seen food costs skyrocket over the past year.....

USDA is asleep at the wheel, apparently, and oblivious to the fact that the first couple wheels fell off several miles back.

[Frustratedlady]

2. Where are they getting these low percentages? 3.5%?

I think they stuck a decimal in that shouldn't have been there.

[knitter4democracy]

3. No shit.

Why do I get the feeling that all the so-called financial experts don't live in the Midwest?