What began as a potential record-setting year for corn and soybean yields became a miserable one for much of Ohio because of persistently hot and dry conditions.
A drought that began in the southeast part of the state this summer expanded to the north and west.
The latest U.S. Drought Monitor Map, released last week, shows all of northwest Ohio in a moderate drought.
That's a slight improvement over the week before, when most of northwest Ohio was in a severe drought. Much of the land in the southeast part of the state is still experiencing severe or extreme dryness. Some of it was deemed exceptionally dry a week ago.
Nearly all of Michigan and Indiana are in a moderate drought or abnormally dry, too.
The drought remains severe in many parts of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula north of Lansing, including the tip of Michigan’s farm-rich Thumb region. It’s also severe in several northern Indiana counties just west of the Ohio state line.
“The persistent hot and dry conditions turned what was supposed to be record corn and soybean yields, projected by USDA, into a significant drop in yields in 2024, compared to 2023,” Ty Higgins, Ohio Farm Bureau Federation senior director of communications and media relations, told The Blade.
Lower yields usually mean higher crop prices for the agricultural industry.
But other parts of the Midwest had more favorable growing conditions, which suppressed corn and soybean prices overall, Mr. Higgins said.
Growers got no more for their corn than they did in 1974, he said.
“Lower prices, higher input costs and inflationary pressures have played havoc on agriculture across the country, causing a 30 percent decline in net farm income over the past two years,” Mr. Higgins said.
Much of the uncertainty comes back to the drought.
It’s been so bad in southeastern Ohio that multiple combines caught fire while harvesting, said Aaron Wilson, state climatologist and field specialist with Ohio State University Extension.
One of the most common reasons for those field fires is an accumulation of ultra dry crop residue becoming ignited by hot engine components.
In a Sept. 18 Ohio Farm Bureau Federation podcast, John Patterson, Ohio Farm Service Agency director, called the 2024 drought “historic” in southeast Ohio.
Farmers who have sustained heavy impacts are encouraged to apply for relief through the Farm Service Agency before Jan. 30, Mr. Patterson said.
“If there was ever a year that emphasized the need for an updated Farm Bill, it was 2024,” Mr. Higgins said. “The farm bill farmers are currently working with is not current at all. It was originally passed in 2018 and has been extended since its expiration in 2023. In that time, we have seen a historic drought in 2024 and unprecedented rainy spring in 2019, a global pandemic, multiple wars a half a world away, and significantly higher interest rates and other operating costs that the farmer has incurred directly.”
He said extending the current farm bill another year is not the answer.
“A new modernized farm bill will help Ohio farmers remain sustainable through all the challenges that seem to constantly come their way and we urge lawmakers to make this a priority before they call it a year,” Mr. Higgins said.
The 2018 Farm Bill expired Sept. 30, 2024, although the U.S. Department of Agriculture said its Farm Service Agency is able to continue delivering many of its programs to help farmers for now. The Farm Bill covers a variety of topics, including loans, disaster assistance, funding for conservation programs to help maintain water quality, and price supports to help protect against market instability.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown is the first Ohioan to serve on the Senate Agriculture Committee in nearly 50 years. He is a Farm Bill supporter who has called for more relief for drought-stricken farmers.
His office said in a statement this fall that Ohio “is currently experiencing the worst drought in the state since the Dust Bowl.”
U.S. Reps. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo) and Bob Latta (R., Bowling Green) also voted in favor of the last Farm Bill.
Statewide, Ohio had its seventh driest October this year, Mr. Wilson said.
Nationally, the United States tied for second with October 1963 as the driest October on record, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a recent news release.
October 2024 was also the second warmest October on record for the country, the agency said.
By the end of October, 87.2 percent of the continental United States was experiencing abnormally dry to exceptional drought conditions, a record in the U.S. Drought Monitor's 25-year history, NOAA said.
According to Climate Central, a national group of meteorologists, Octobers in Toledo are now 4.7 degrees warmer on average than they were in 1970.
The hope is that the Toledo area will regain some of its lost moisture now that temperatures have cooled, Mr. Wilson said.
But NOAA said this fall that a La Nina weather system setting up in the Pacific Ocean could result in mild temperatures and less snow in January and February.
Cold air outbreaks coming down from Canada could change that, Mr. Wilson said.
Even if there’s more rain than snow this winter, soil moisture has a better chance to rebound with cooler temperatures, he said.
“It’s a favorable forecast for us alleviating drought,” Mr. Wilson said of northwest Ohio.
The southeast Ohio drought will almost certainly linger, he said.
“You need sustained weather systems to make up for that,” Mr. Wilson said.
In an 11-page seasonal update published on Nov. 26, NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory said Great Lakes water levels have slipped below their long-term averages again.
Among other things, that impacts the amount of goods that ships can transport.
“Over the past few months we’ve seen below-average precipitation, which is contributing to the slightly below average [Great Lakes water] levels we’re seeing this fall,” said Lauren Fry, a physical scientist with NOAA’s Great Lakes lab.
She also said October’s unusual warmth contributed to stronger evaporation.
Great Lakes surface temperatures are currently 4 degrees to 7 degrees warmer than normal, NOAA said.
“This is predominately due to the warmer-than-average weather we’ve been experiencing this fall,” the agency said.
NOAA also said the warmer-than-normal air temperatures predicted for the upcoming winter “may set us up to another slow start to the ice season but, for now, it’s too soon to make any concrete predictions” about Great Lakes ice cover.
Last year’s Great Lakes ice cover was a record low.
First Published December 2, 2024, 7:03 p.m.
