Breadbasket state Iowa faces major crop losses from flooding!

NEW YORK - June 17, 2008 - Battered by torrential rains, the U.S. breadbasket state of Iowa is battling flooding that could be devastating for this year's grain harvest, producers say.

"The damages are very extreme," said Don Roose, president of U.S. Commodities, a research and brokerage firm based near the Iowa capital of Des Moines.

With 83 of the state's 99 counties declared a disaster area, Iowa, the leading U.S. corn and soybean producing state, is the most hard-hit of nine central states pounded by days of heavy rains.

The deluge and a subsequent series of tornadoes and storms have stymied planting this year, forcing farmers to wait to plant or to replant fields that are flooded.

According to the Iowa Department of Agriculture, the wet weather as of last week had either prevented planting or drowned out nine percent of the state's corn crop and 20 percent of soybean crop.

That represents between 400,000 to 600,000 hectares (1.0 and 1.5 million acres) of corn and about 800,000 hectares (two million acres) of soybeans.

Iowa Governor Chet Culver estimated crop damage at one billion dollars.

At this time of year, Roose said, "planting should have been completed by now." He said the delay could cost crop-yield productivity.

The calendar is working against farmers, said David Miller, director of research and commodity services at the Iowa Farm Bureau.

"In the northern part of the state, we probably are really close to a stage where it makes no sense to plant corn because it will not mature before frost," Miller said.