Report: Drought intensifies in Kansas, Nebraska
ST. LOUIS (AP) - Rains that eased or stabilized parched conditions in some key farming states haven't helped growers and ranchers in Kansas or Nebraska, where the severity of the drought continues to spike, a climate monitoring center showed Thursday.
Storms that rolled through swaths of the nation's midsection last week offered some respite to farmers punished for months by the widest U.S. drought in decades. Nonetheless, rainfall so late in the growing season might not meaningfully improve yield expectations that the federal government has downgraded for two straight months.
The U.S. Drought Monitor map released Thursday showed that the amount of the contiguous U.S. mired in drought conditions dropped less than 1 percentage point to 61.8 percent as of Tuesday. The portion enduring extreme or exceptional drought - the two worst classifications - also eased, to 23.68 percent from 24.14 percent.
In Iowa, the nation's leader in corn production, the amount of land classified in those two most-serious categories dropped 7 percentage points to 62.05 percent over the past week, thanks to the recent storms.
"Other areas, such as the Southern and Central Plains, were not as lucky and continued to dry out," the National Climatic Data Center's Michael Brewer wrote in the update, released weekly by the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.
The amount of land in Nebraska suffering exceptional drought spiked by 19 percentage points to 22.5 percent, while that number in Kansas jumped from 38.6 percent last week to 63.3 percent now. Illinois, another key supplier of corn and soybeans, saw its conditions abate slightly, with the amount of land in the two worst drought categories slipping from 81.18 percent to 79.54 percent.
The U.S. Agriculture Department has twice slashed its forecast for this year's corn and soybean output because of the punishing drought in the nation's breadbasket. It forecast the nation's biggest harvest ever in the spring, when farmers planted 96.4 million acres of corn - the most since 1937. But the agency cut its estimate a month ago and again last Friday, saying it now expects the nation to produce 10.8 billion bushels, the least since 2006.
If that estimate holds, the federal government says it will be enough to meet the world's needs and ensure there are no shortages. But experts say food prices will almost certainly climb as corn is a widely used ingredient found in many products including cosmetics, cereal, colas and candy bars.
The USDA's latest estimate predicts corn farmers will average 123.4 bushels per acre, down 24 bushels from last year in what would be the lowest average yield in 17 years. But the yield would still be as good as nearly a decade ago, when the average was about 129 bushels in a year without drought.
The drought stretching across the U.S. from Ohio west to California is deepest in the middle of the country.
Storms that rolled through swaths of the nation's midsection last week offered some respite to farmers punished for months by the widest U.S. drought in decades. Nonetheless, rainfall so late in the growing season might not meaningfully improve yield expectations that the federal government has downgraded for two straight months.
The U.S. Drought Monitor map released Thursday showed that the amount of the contiguous U.S. mired in drought conditions dropped less than 1 percentage point to 61.8 percent as of Tuesday. The portion enduring extreme or exceptional drought - the two worst classifications - also eased, to 23.68 percent from 24.14 percent.
In Iowa, the nation's leader in corn production, the amount of land classified in those two most-serious categories dropped 7 percentage points to 62.05 percent over the past week, thanks to the recent storms.
"Other areas, such as the Southern and Central Plains, were not as lucky and continued to dry out," the National Climatic Data Center's Michael Brewer wrote in the update, released weekly by the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.
The amount of land in Nebraska suffering exceptional drought spiked by 19 percentage points to 22.5 percent, while that number in Kansas jumped from 38.6 percent last week to 63.3 percent now. Illinois, another key supplier of corn and soybeans, saw its conditions abate slightly, with the amount of land in the two worst drought categories slipping from 81.18 percent to 79.54 percent.
The U.S. Agriculture Department has twice slashed its forecast for this year's corn and soybean output because of the punishing drought in the nation's breadbasket. It forecast the nation's biggest harvest ever in the spring, when farmers planted 96.4 million acres of corn - the most since 1937. But the agency cut its estimate a month ago and again last Friday, saying it now expects the nation to produce 10.8 billion bushels, the least since 2006.
If that estimate holds, the federal government says it will be enough to meet the world's needs and ensure there are no shortages. But experts say food prices will almost certainly climb as corn is a widely used ingredient found in many products including cosmetics, cereal, colas and candy bars.
The USDA's latest estimate predicts corn farmers will average 123.4 bushels per acre, down 24 bushels from last year in what would be the lowest average yield in 17 years. But the yield would still be as good as nearly a decade ago, when the average was about 129 bushels in a year without drought.
The drought stretching across the U.S. from Ohio west to California is deepest in the middle of the country.
Bad news man. We will all be paying for this through higher prices for everything.
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The midwest has had bad news a lot this year, tornadoes, draught, when do the locust get here?
We have brought this on ourselves. We have strayed our nation away from our christian values and now the lord is telling us it is time to return. He gave this land to The European Christians to freely worship in, and prosper in. This was our promise land. Since then, we have degraded into a nation of homosexual loving fornicators who celebrate marijuana and abortions while shunning christ.Â
I fear that it will take nothing less than a return to our christian faith and the return of a christian leader to turn this tide. And our time is running out.
 @rushrules Well, that would count out both Ryan and Romney, since both belong to cults.
@rushrules wow, the same god that told his followers to torture non believers (spanish inquisition), the one failed to protect children; especially boys from being raped and victimized by the very priests that lead his congregations.
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What a bunch of crap. Religion has absolutely nothing to do with this; your statement is the most narrow minded thing I have ever read, and I am truly dumber for having read it. What is even more odd is there is overwhelming evidence supporting the theory of evolution, and the only evidence or documentation supporting creationism is a book written over 2000 years ago, by humans. It wasnt signed at a bookstore by God himself, it was an unauthorized biography by a bunch of humans.
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Oh and let me ask you a question about that book; have you ever noticed how over long periods of time, facts and other information are distorted, paraphrased, translated, and before you know it, have lost their entire meaning? Do you honestly believe what was told and written thousands of years ago is still the same exact meaning and verbatim? Get real.
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/08/president-obama-corn-drought.html
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FTA:
""The president continues to blame anyone and everyone for the drought but himself," Boehner said today."
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So the new conservative talking point is that the weather is Obama's fault. Because, they don't have any common sense anymore.
@T H I SÂ Â Another case of "out of context statements". But hey, if it makes you feel good go for it.
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 @Mej47 I am sorry that the facts of how your party is acting bothers you so much. Maybe if you guys didn't say such rediculous things, I would not need to point out that you guys are saying.... such rediculous things.
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But hey if it makes you feel better to say such rediculous things, go for it.
@T H I S  Not my party. I'm an Independent fiscal conservative.
Do you mean saying stupid things like "If you have a successful business, you didn't do that, someone else did that."? There's enough stupidity coming out of both party's and if all you do is go around pulling sound bites out of context you can make anyone who gets in front of a TV camera appear idiotic whether they are or not. of course when you have people like Biden and Christie out there it doesn't requiremuch effort to make them look like fools.
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 @northwestsurfer And here I thought it was just that "truths" and "facts" go against their belief in things like "myths" and "legends"
@T H I S @Mej47 conservatives will never admit or allow the truth as long as it threatens industry that pads their pockets.