NOAA has issued its updated 2011 Atlantic hurricane season outlook, raising the number of expected named storms from its pre-season outlook issued in May
NOAA’s Atlantic hurricane season update calls for increase in named storms
November 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment
November Snow Climatology for the Midwest
November 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment
In the Midwest, November is typically the first month of the cold season when measureable snowfall occurs over a majority of the region, according to the Midwestern Regional Climate Center at the Illinois State Water Survey (ISWS). However, it is not uncommon for northern portions of the Midwest to experience their first snowfall in October.
Herman, Michigan, located in the Upper Peninsula, reported the first snowfall in the Midwest this year, with 0.1 inches recorded on October 19. Generally, locations further north will experience an earlier onset of snowfall each season.
The earliest median date for the first snowfall in the Midwest is October 10. The median date is determined such that half the years are before this date and half occur after this date. The median dates and normal snowfall values were calculated using data from 1981 to 2010.
In Minneapolis, Minnesota, the median date is early in the season, on November 4. Green Bay, Wisconsin and Des Moines, Iowa generally receive their first snowfall around November 10. The median date of first snowfall in Chicago, Illinois is November 20.
Further to the south, the first snowfall of the season typically occurs in late November and early to mid-December. Indianapolis, Indiana and Champaign-Urbana, Illinois have a median date for the first snowfall on November 25 and 30, respectively. St. Louis, Missouri generally receives their first snowfall around December 1 and Lexington, Kentucky on December 4.
Based on climatology, it is highly probable that residents in the northern latitude cities of Minneapolis, Minnesota and Green Bay, Wisconsin will see snowfall in November. Minneapolis has experienced November snowfall in 94 percent of the years on record and Green Bay has experienced November snowfall in 90 percent of the years since records began in 1886.
The central Midwest also has a good chance of seeing snowfall in November. Des Moines, Iowa and Indianapolis, Indiana have experienced November snowfall in about 75 percent of the years on record.
Even though St. Louis, Missouri and Lexington, Kentucky are located further south, they too experience snowfall in November. In fact, Lexington has received measurable November snowfall in 58 percent of the years since records began in 1887.
So, how much November snowfall is normal across the Midwest? The November snowfall normal is 8.8 inches in Minneapolis and 4 inches in Green Bay.
Located further to the south than Green Bay but downwind of Lake Michigan, Big Rapids, Michigan generally experiences a snowier November, with a normal snowfall of 4.9 inches. The higher November snowfall normal in Big Rapids reflects the influence of lake-effect snowfall, which occurs when cold, Canadian air masses move across the Great Lakes while water temperatures are still relatively warm.
November snowfall normals decrease moving further south: 2.9 inches in Des Moines, Iowa; 1.3 inches in Chicago, Illinois; 0.8 inches in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois and Columbus, Ohio; 0.7 inches in Indianapolis, Indiana and St. Louis, Missouri; and 0.3 inches in Lexington, Kentucky.
The snowiest November on record for Minneapolis occurred in 1991 when they received 46.9 inches of snowfall. Minneapolis received two record-breaking snowstorms that November, both of which remain on the Top 14 Largest Snowfalls in the Twin Cities list (numbers 1 and 13), according to the Minnesota Climatology Working Group. Green Bay has sustained their record for snowiest November for 121 years, since 1889 when 21.3 inches was recorded.
The Great Appalachian Storm of November 1950 produced significant damage and record-breaking snowfall totals for the Appalachian region and eastern United States. During this storm, Columbus, Ohio and Lexington, Kentucky recorded a total of 15.2 inches and 9.7 inches, respectively, making 1950 the snowiest November on record for both locations.
Lower crop insurance premiums for corn and soybeans
November 28, 2011 By 2 Comments
The USDA Risk Management Agency is going to lower the crop insurance premiums for corn and soybeans in 2012. RMA Administrator Bill Murphy says new crop technology has resulted in fewer crop losses even under bad conditions. “Prior to 1995, our historic loss ratio was about $1.40, for every dollar in premium we took in, we paid out about $1.40…since that time it has been down around 80 cents.” Murphy says corn growers pointed out the change when the last farm bill was being negotiated, so USDA promised to do an assessment. These changes are the result of that assessment.
Overall, there will be about a seven-percent rate reduction for corn and a nine-percent reduction for soybeans but it will vary by state. For example, Murphy says growers in Iowa, Indiana and Minnesota will see corn rates around twelve percent lower.
And this is just the beginning, assessments will continue on other crops with wheat, cotton, grain sorghum and probably potatoes for the 2013 crop year.
Wrapping up a good year in Wisconsin fields
November 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Another week of above-normal temperatures highlights the final Crop Progress Report of the season from the National Ag Statistics Service Wisconsin Field Office. Even though some parts of the state started the week with snow on the ground, it quickly disappeared as temperatures ranged 7 to 9 degrees above normal. Limited precipitation was fine for most of the state with soil moisture rated 70 percent adequate. However, it is getting quite dry in the northwestern district where 58 percent of the soil moisture is classified short and very short. The west central district is 39 percent short to very short. Since March 1st, precipitation is above normal in Green Bay and La Crosse, normal in Eau Claire and below normal in Madison and Milwaukee. Growing degree days are more than 200 above the normal year across the state.
As of Sunday, the Wisconsin corn-for-grain crop is 95 percent harvested, five points ahead of the five-year average while fall tillage is 82 percent complete, 14 points ahead of average. Winter wheat is going dormant.
Read the full NASS report here:
Dairy traders return to work optimistic
November 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment
After four days off, dairy traders returned to work with an optimistic outlook on Monday. Cash cheese barrels increases 2 cents to $1.82 while blocks added 2.5 cents to $1.8125 on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Butter increased a nickel to $1.66 with 11 loads sold. Class III futures contracts reflected the optimism, December up 64 cents to $18.77; January increased 52 cents to $17.50.
As expected, with schools closed for Thanksgiving more milk was available to go into manufacturing but reports are the cheese factories were easily able to handle the excess. Now our attention turns to demand for the holidays and all indications are it will be a good holiday season for dairy.
Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) has accepted 12 requests for export assistance from Dairy Farmers of America, Darigold and United Dairymen of Arizona to sell a total of 3,336 metric tons (7.355 million pounds) of Cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese to customers in Asia, the Middle East and Central America. The product will be delivered December through April 2012.
In 2011, CWT has assisted members in making export sales of Cheddar, Monterey Jack and Gouda cheese totaling 40,071 metric tons (88.3 million pounds) to 25 countries on four continents.
2,4-D resistant waterhemp found in Nebraska
November 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Resistance to 2,4-D has been confirmed in a waterhemp population in southeast Nebraska.
It’s the first reported instance of 2,4-D resistant waterhemp in the country—and it makes 2,4-D the sixth herbicide that waterhemp has become resistant to in the U.S.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln cropping systems specialist Greg Kruger says it appears to be an isolated case.
“In this particular case, there has been 2,4-D applied to this field at least once for the last 15 years—and in some years, more than once—and a lot of times that application went on at a half of a labeled rate,” Kruger says.
But Kruger says it does send a message about resistance management.
“We caught this very early on. It’s very isolated. I don’t think it’s something we should panic about,” he says, “but here’s an opportunity for us to discuss what happened and really try to proactively manage the other areas that we’re controlling weeds—so that we don’t have the same issue pop up in other places.”
To minimize the risk of developing herbicide resistant weeds, Kruger recommends crop rotation and herbicide rotation—as well as tank-mixing of multiple effective herbicides.
“Using more than one effective herbicide against a weed is going to decrease the chance of a mutation that would lead to resistance.”
Although they haven’t yet seen 2,4-D resistant waterhemp in their state, University of Illinois researchers say they have documented waterhemp resistance to five other herbicide families in Illinois.
Indiana harvest wrapping up
November 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Due to wet weather, limited progress was made last week on corn harvest. The latest Indiana Crop and Weather report says many operators with late planted corn will wait for the ground to freeze before reentering fields to complete harvest. However, corn harvest statewide is 95 percent complete, slightly higher than the previous week. Across the state, 94 percent of the corn has been harvested in the north region, 96 percent in the central and 97 percent in the south. The average moisture content of the corn is 18 percent.
Ninety-seven percent of the winter wheat acreage has emerged compared to 95 percent last year. Seventy-four percent of the crop is listed in good to excellent condition compared to just 30 percent a year ago.
While rainfall has muddied pastures and feedlots, the above normal temperatures have benefited the recovery of pastures and hay fields. Eighty percent of hay supplies are listed as adequate or surplus.
Soybeans, corn up on outside markets
November 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Soybeans were higher on fund and technical buying, along with spillover from the outside markets. The dollar was lower with the Dow, gold, and crude oil higher on at least some easing of concern over European debt and good U.S. weekend retail numbers. Past that – there was no fresh news but contracts were due for a bounce after the recent losses. Soybean meal and oil were higher thanks to the generally higher trade in grains and oilseeds and the outside market influence. DTN reports South Korea is tendering for 150,000 tons of international soybeans.
Corn was higher on fund and commercial buying, in addition to the outside market direction. The pit was due for a bounce after the recent move to more than one month lows and there are harvest delays in the forecast for the Eastern Cornbelt. According to USDA, the corn harvest has, for all intents and purposes, wrapped up for the year but parts of the Eastern Cornbelt still have some acreage left in the ground according to the state by state numbers. Ethanol futures were higher.
The wheat complex was mixed. Chicago and Minneapolis were up on technical buying, short covering and spillover from the outsides. Kansas City was narrowly mixed with nearbys down on forecast for precipitation in the Southern Plains. USDA reports 92% of the winter wheat crop has emerged, compared to 93% a year ago and the five year average of 92%, with 52% of the crop rated good to excellent, up 2% from a week ago and 5% more than a year ago. European wheat was lower on the higher Euro. According to Russia’s Ag Ministry, as of November 28, farmers have harvested 97.8 million tons of grain in bunker weight, compared to 63.7 million a year ago and 101.9 million two years ago; the 2011 total includes 59.4 million tons. Iraq’s Grain Board issued a tender for “at least” 50,000 tons of optional origin wheat. Australia’s Bureau of Statistics states the domestic wheat supply as of October 31 was 7.3 million tons, down 11% from the end of September but more than double the October 31, 2010 total.
NCGA pleased with crop insurance rerating
November 28, 2011 By 1 Comment
The president of the National Corn Growers Association has praise for the USDA about its decision announced today to reduce crop insurance premiums for corn in 2012. The soybean premium has also been rerated to a lower amount.
Gary Neimeyer, a corn grower from Auburn, Illinois, says it’s been an ongoing issue for more than eight years and NCGA is pleased that farmers will no longer be faced with the “continued widening gap between the loss for corn and the premiums charged to growers for policy coverage.” He adds that it’s been a long day in coming.
The USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) announcement says the average premium for corn will be lowered by seven-percent and for soybeans it will be nine-percent lower.
The RMA will outline premium rates and other information on Wednesday for the upcoming crop year.
Cattle market is ‘most impressive’
November 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment
The cattle market is sizzling.
It’s so hot that USDA Market News reporter Corbitt Wall calls November 2011, quote, “the most impressive performance in the history of the beef cattle industry.”
Wall is especially impressed with how the market rallied right in the face of Thanksgiving—traditionally a turkey/ham holiday—and the seasonal lull in retail beef featuring and purchasing.
Wall’s remarks were contained in a story on cattlenetwork.com.
Calendar year 2012 has been a very good year for most cattle producers, according to National Cattlemen’s Beef Association president-elect J.D. Alexander of Pilger, Nebraska.
“We’re seeing record prices for cattle on all aspects—from the feeder cattle to the fat cattle—so it’s been a good year,” Alexander says. “You know, we’ve turned the market around from a pretty negative situation as little as two years ago, to showing some pretty good profits.”
Alexander says strong beef exports have been a big factor.
“It’s estimated that the foreign markets alone add about 200 dollars per animal to the process,” he says.
Alexander says there could be several good years ahead for the cattle industry.
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