LESSON 2b: CLIMATE EFFECTS ON CROPS

INTRODUCTION

In this section we consider the effect of weather patterns on crop production in the U.S. Corn Belt, particularly across Iowa. There has always been some concern about precipitation across the state. The yield of corn and soybeans, historically, tends to be greater in the eastern part of the state than the west. In the previous section we said that the yield difference can be attributed completely to the greater water stress in the western part of the state.

If that were absolutely true through the fifties and the sixties, it is not necessarily true any longer. There is an element of climate change in the state and in the region that seems to be modifying that condition. At least it did between 1983 and 1996. That element of climate change has to do with precipitation.