The effects of extremely wet planting conditions on maize and soybean yields

Short durations of very high spring soil moisture can influence crop yields in many ways, including delaying planting and damaging young crops. The central United States has seen a significant upward trend in the frequency and intensity of extreme precipitation in the 20th century, potentially leading to more frequent occurrences of saturated or nearly saturated fields during the planting season, yet the impacts of these changes on crop yields are not known. Here we investigate the yield response to excess spring moisture for both maize and soybean in the U.S. states of Illinois, Iowa, and Indiana, and the impacts of historical trends for 1950–2011. We find that simple measures of extreme spring soil moisture, derived from finescale daily moisture data from the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) hydrologic model, lead to significant improvements in statistical models of yields for both crops. Individual counties experience up to 10 % loss in years with extremely wet springs. However, losses due to historical trends in excess spring moisture measures have generally been small, with 1–3 % yield loss over the 62 year study period.