Agribusiness News – Week of March 14, 2011
Midwest Prepares for Massive Spring Flooding One of the snowiest winters on record for the Midwest and northern U.S. Plains have crop watchers worried about a repeat of the massive flooding that hit the major U.S. grain producing region in 2008. Meteorologists report that accumulated precipitation this winter through the end of February ranged from 125 percent of normal to well over 200 percent for the region of northern Iowa into the southern two-thirds of Minnesota and westward to the Dakotas
U.S. and state officials are preparing for spring floods as forecasters predict moderate to major flooding for the region. In 2008, heavy rains in the northern Midwest in June and July caused tributaries into the Mississippi River watershed to overflow, flooding tens of millions of acres of cropland in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. This year, the timing of rains and how quickly floodwaters recede will hold the key to how many acres need replanting. (Insurance Journal, March 7, 2011)