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“Drought” a 4-letter word for many farmers going into 2021

An eastern Iowa corn and soybean grower is one of many farmers concerned about dryness in the year ahead.

Jeff Pape of Dyersville says it’s not abnormally dry in his area yet.

“But we didn’t go into the fall with a ton of moisture in the ground (and) I’m not seeing a lot of moisture to this winter. The fall reminds me a lot of 2011 when we went into ’12 and ended up with kind of a drought year.”

He tells Brownfield the moisture deficit is cause for concern.

“We did well during the growing season until we hit August (and) ran out of rain in this part of the world. It definitely affected some of the beans depending if they were an early number or on dry ground.”

Pape is also watching weather in other parts of the world, particularly South America, Russia, and Ukraine.

“That will help dictate our future future prices in this area.”

He says a shortage of grain elsewhere would likely affect planting decisions in the U.S.