Dry soil going into harvest isn’t an unusual sight for farmers, but with a lack of harvest rainfall, there haven’t been many opportunities to replenish soil moisture thus far into the season. Because of this lack of rainfall, Dennis Todey, Director of the USDA Midwest Climate Hub says soils are much drier than he would expect for this time of year.
“We obviously will need to get moisture back in the soil by the time we get around to planting next year. We have a lot of time before that happens, so we’re not too concerned about it, but it’s something we will need to monitor,” says Todey. “Another thing we have to watch out for is that soils will freeze to a greater depth when we have cold conditions, especially if there’s no snow covering it. So we are starting to talk about, cautioning people that if things do become colder for a protracted period of time, especially it gets an early start in the winter, we could see some some water lines freeze.”
Dryness has also impacted river traffic as drought conditions cause the soil to soak up more water and cause less runoff.
