Agronomist says El Nino may help Iowa farmers

An Iowa State University agronomist says Iowa farmers are likely to see higher corn and soybean yields in 2016 if the El Nino weather pattern continues into the upcoming growing season.

El Nino, the name given to a band of warm water that tends to develop in the central Pacific Ocean, helped fuel storms that rippled across southern California and Arizona at the close of 2015.

Elwynn Taylor, a professor of agronomy at ISU, said when El Nino extends into a growing season, higher corn and soybean yields have been recorded 70 percent of the time. Taylor said that can change when an El Nino transitions into a La Nina, when there is a cooling of waters in the Pacific and resulting droughts slash crop yields.

However, 'La Nina doesn't always follow an El Nino,” he said in a news release. 'There are more El Nino events than La Nina.

'All El Ninos seem to have their own personalities. This one comes in by most measures as stronger than usual.”

El Nino affects weather by upsetting atmospheric pressure patterns, Taylor said. Every seven years or so, the phenomenon grows strong enough to change weather across the United States.

Usually, that results in warmer-than-usual winters and cooler-than-usual summers in the Midwest. It also often creates wetter-than-normal weather in the Southwest.

Taylor said widespread rainfall in December has soaked much of the soil in the Midwest. That has virtually all drainage tiles from Iowa to Ohio running off excess moisture.

Taylor said additional rainfall in the spring could delay planting by preventing farmers from getting into their fields.