By Julie Ingwersen CHICAGO, June 13 (Reuters) - About one-quarter of Iowa's soybean acres and at least 8 percent of the state's corn either have not been seeded or will need replanting due to flooding, an Iowa State University agronomist said in an interview on Friday. Planting at this late date, farmers can expect significant yield losses, ISU extension agronomist Palle Pedersen said. And with many areas still under water, farmers are unlikely to be able to get in their fields for several more days. "Nobody is going to be able to plant this weekend because it is so wet here. It is going to be next week" at the earliest, he said. Farmers planting soybeans in mid-June can expect only about 60 percent of optimal yield. By waiting until early July, yield potential drops to 33 to 50 percent. For corn, Pedersen said, "Right now, planting in middle of June, it's 70 percent of your yield potential. In early July, it will be 50 percent." "So we are not going to beat our record in Iowa this year," Pedersen said. Iowa grows more corn than any other U.S. state and is typically the largest or second-largest soybean producer. Last year, Iowa farmers grew 2.368 billion bushels of corn -- nearly one-fifth of the U.S. crop -- and 439 million bushels of soybeans. This year, Iowa farmers expected to plant 13.2 million acres of corn and 9.8 million acres of soybeans, according to a March forecast from the U.S. Agriculture Department. Using Pedersen's figures, some 2.4 million acres of the state's intended soybeans and 1 million acres of soybeans could face yield losses of 50 percent. Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey toured farm fields in the Creston, Iowa, area on Friday. More than 10 inches (25 cm) of rain has fallen in the city of Creston so far this month. "We have a lot of fields yet in this state that are not planted," Northey told reporters. "We have about 2 percent of the corn -- which doesn't sound like a lot, but in Iowa that still mounts up -- that have not been planted; about 14 percent of the soybeans that have not been planted," Northey said. In addition, he said: "About 7 percent of the corn, 6 percent of the soybeans have been drowned out." WORSE THAN 1993? Grain experts have been drawing comparisons between current conditions and the flood of 1993, when the Mississippi River flooded its banks in the heart of the U.S. Corn Belt, resulting in the smallest U.S. corn crop in almost 20 years. In that year, the heaviest rains came in June and July, after the corn and soy crops had a chance to get established. The 2008 crops may be worse off, Pedersen said, because a cool, wet spring slowed or prevented early growth. "This year it has been cold and wet since April. So the plants that are flooded are dead or under stress, and the plants not flooded are under stress as well, because they are so behind in development." "These numbers you see (for late-planted yield reductions) are under perfect conditions, and we are not dealing with that now." (Reporting by Christine Stebbins, writing by Julie Ingwersen; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
Houses at Lingling District of Yongzhou, Hunan province are seen surrounded by floodwaters June 13, 2008. China's government urged authorities at all levels to take preventive actions against torrential floods and ...
