I feel like a broken record saying that this year has been anything but normal, especially after feeling like we said it a lot in 2020 as well. However, the fact of the matter is that this year may be one that farmers remember for a long time to come. It may very well rank up there with 2012, 1993, or 1988. Iowa farmers, as you quickly approach the finish line this year, know this; you aren?t the only ones. The whole country seems to be facing wild variability and some kind of challenge. One market analyst has been looking at the broad overview of American agriculture, this year, and talks about the variability he sees.
Mike Zuzolo is President of Global Commodities Analytics. He has been watching the results of the 2021 harvest come in from all over the country, and he is noticing that this harvest seems to be all over the board.
Some of the yield numbers he has seen are pretty decent. But he says that in areas where we expect top-end yields, they just may not be there. However, they seem to be showing up in unlikely places.
When you look at the 18 states in the cornbelt, you see that many are well over half done on corn, but not so far on soybeans.
When it comes to corn harvest this year, Zuzolo says that a high occurrence of tar spot is really having an effect on this year?s harvest.
The drought was also a huge factor in how out of whack everything seems to be. Zuzolo says we will see those results more when USDA releases its final 2021 estimates in the beginning of 2022.
The Crop Progress reports will keep telling the story for now.
