Ohio corn, soybean crops face $1B in losses due to heavy rains

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

Ohio corn and soybean farmers whose planting was delayed by the cold, wet spring are scrambling to avoid smaller harvests and heavy losses later this year.

Even with recent warmer, drier weather allowing farmers to get into fields that had been turned into swamps, planting is still far behind average, and “the economic impact continues to grow daily,” said Barry Ward, an assistant professor and an official with Ohio State University Extension.

May’s heavy rains could cause nearly $1 billion in losses for the state’s corn and soybean farmers, Ward said.

Estimated losses could reach $720 million for corn growers and about $260 million for those growing soybeans, he said.

This spring was the second wettest in history in the Mahoning Valley. It was the wettest on record for the Cincinnati area in southwest Ohio, which got soaked with 24.78 inches of rain in March, April and May. Columbus and Dayton each had their third-rainiest spring on record, according to the National Weather Service office in Wilmington.

As of last Sunday, U.S. Department of Agriculture data showed corn growers were still far behind the average year, with only 58 percent of the crop planted, and soybeans were at 26 percent,