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Variable weather conditions and its impact on the global balance sheet

An atmospheric scientist says variable weather conditions across the globe could add more uncertainty in agriculture.

Nutrien Ag Solution’s Eric Snodgrass says frost damage in South America and hot and dry conditions across Europe and Ukraine could add more volatility to the markets. “And, we’re still at the stage where across the Northern Hemisphere where crops are mostly in the vegetative stage.  It’s not yet to the reproductive stage meaning that risks are still on the table,” Snodgrass says. “If markets are looking for a weather scare, they might be able to find it easier than in other years.”

He tells Brownfield he expects changes to crop production totals as the growing season continues. “We don’t yet know how much Ukraine planted and if they planted more spring wheat then they did corn or soybeans.  That could limit production number.  There are also unknowns about what China went after in terms of the crop again this year, too, given the shifting around of what was planted given the early season price rallies we saw.”

And, Snodgrass says, if heat stress affects pollination for the U.S. corn crop around mid-July, USDA could pull back on those numbers.

“It’s kind of hard to find a spot across the Northern Hemisphere that’s just hitting homeruns with great weather.”

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