SOYBEAN STRUGGLES: Crop Needs Rain Now

Another week without rain could cost some farmers any hope of having a record harvest.

John Airy Jr. got eight tenths of an inch of rain on his soybean field near Central City just last week. But it disappeared right away.

The soybeans he planted are spotty and struggling.

“Especially with the heat they’re talking about later this week, we get two more weeks along without a half inch, an inch of rain people are really going to get concerned,” said Airy.

Airy, who is president of the Linn County Soybean Association, says soybeans are the crop most at risk right now.

There is moisture a bit lower in the ground and corn plants put in weeks ago have put roots deep enough to tap that source for now. But soybeans need rain just to get started.

“It’s kind of on the front of people’s minds I think yes, I don’t think nobody’s panicking yet, but it’s on the front of their minds,” said Airy.

Crop ratings have slipped a bit and prices have firmed up as traders weigh the impact of so-far dry weather.

Climatologists rate this as the driest start to a growing season since 2006.