Dry weather may impact grocery prices

ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – Southeast Minnesota farmers have been facing challenges due to the lack of rain this summer.

“This year is definitely the worst I have seen in quite a while. Most guys talk about 1988 is the last time it was this bad, but actually I think we are probably worse this year.”

KTTC’s Chief Meteorologist Nick Jansen says the rainfall total at Rochester International Airport was 8.63 inches below average from June 1 through August 31. For the year as a whole, the total at RST is 5.3 inches below average since the beginning of 2023.

“In 2021, that was really bad. 2022, we had a dry fall. And of course this year we are also dry. So, for a lot of the farmers, this is the third year, we are kinda in a cycle hoping we would break out of that.”

For Tom Cotter, this dry weather had a significant impact on all of his crops and livestock. He had to get rid of some of his feeders to help with the expensive cost of buying hay.

“Corn is definitely dead now, soybeans are falling very fast also, the sweet corn and the peas they were kinda all over the place.”

Both the Commissioner and Cotter expect grocery prices to be affected by the dry weather. Cotter says meat prices are likely to be impacted the most.

“There’s so many down south that really got hit hard. A lot of cattle were liquidated then and now we are getting hit up in this region pretty hard. As far as the food crops, I do canning crops and they are definitely hurting this year, but I know so many spots out there that have had good years too with the canning crops so that probably won’t go up as much.”

“It really can impact prices as we can look at not just Minnesota being dry but the whole parts of the Midwest being dry so you have shorter crops and so that ultimately does lead to tighter supply and prices.”

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