Crop Insurance Today June 2018 - 10

Western wildfires were reported to have resulted in $11.9 billion in damage. At the same time
the drought in the Northern Plains continued to
worsen resulting in deterioration of pastures and
rangeland as well as the spring wheat crop. By the
end of summer, the conditions in Montana and
the western Dakotas was reportedly the worst
since the drought of 1988.
The end of summer was marked by one of the
worst weather events since 2004 when Hurricane
Harvey, a category 4 Hurricane made landfall
near Rockport, Texas, on August 25. The storm
resulted in record levels of rain and catastrophic
flooding in Houston, eastern Texas, and western Louisiana. Remnants of the storm continue
to dump damaging levels of precipitation as it
played out across the Mississippi Delta and the
Ohio Valley damaging crops along the way. Unfortunately, Mother Nature was not done yet as
there was more disturbing weather on its way.

Figure 7 U.S. Crop Conditions, 2017
Share of Crop Rated Good or Excellent
Percentage

Weekly (5/28 to 10/29)

Crop Conditions

Source: USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service, Crop Progress Report
https://www.nass.usda.gov/Quick_Stats/Lite

Abundant moisture resulted in ideal conditions for growth of grasses and brush throughout
the Western region. The continued hot weather
in the West led to drying and transformed the
lush grass and brush into an ideal fuel source in

addition to what forest service estimates placed
at 6.3 billion dead trees. These conditions contributed to the outbreak of many wildfires that
spread from the Southwest to California and to
the Northwest throughout the summer months.

Figure 8 Fall 2017 (Sept-Nov)
Statewide Precipitation Ranks, 1895-2017

Record
Driest
(1)

Much
Below
Average

Below
Average

Source: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/temp-and-precip/us-maps

Near
Average

Above
Average

Much
Above
Average

Record
Wettest
(122)

After a promising start the U.S. corn crop
condition weakened and by early July, 65 percent of the 2017 U.S. corn crop was rated good
to excellent, 11 percent behind the previous year
(Figure 7). The corn crop improved somewhat
throughout the season and ended with 66 percent of the crop rated good to excellent, 8 percent below the 2016 crop. Despite these ratings
late season weather patterns provided favorable
growing conditions that would help to boost the
overall average yield for the season.
The condition of the Nation's soybean crop
was much less robust than the previous year and
continued to decline until late July. In early June,
66 percent of the crop was rated good to excellent, 6 percent below 2016 ratings; by late July
only 57 percent of the crop was in good to excellent condition, 14 percent below last year's crop.
While temperatures were generally favorable erratic rainfall with wet conditions in the northern
areas and dry in the south may have resulted in
the poorer overall crop conditions. More favorable weather in August and September allowed
the crop to recover, but overall conditions in the
good to excellent range never achieved the level
of the 2016 crop and was the lowest level since
the 2013 crop.
The U.S. upland cotton crop, in contrast, for
most of the year was rated at levels of good to excellent above those of the past four seasons. Early

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NOAA, Ball State University Center for Business and Economic Research and CoreLogic https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/12/28/16795490/naturaldisasters-2017-hurricanes-wildfires-heat-climate-change-cost-deaths

JUNE2018

https://www.nass.usda.gov/Quick_Stats/Lite https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/temp-and-precip/us-maps https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/12/28/16795490/naturaldisasters-2017-hurricanes-wildfires-heat-climate-change-cost-deaths https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/12/28/16795490/naturaldisasters-2017-hurricanes-wildfires-heat-climate-change-cost-deaths

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crop Insurance Today June 2018