Drought could affect grocery prices

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - Northeast Indiana has been under a severe drought since the beginning of June, and conditions since have continued to worsen. This has had a huge impact on the crops in the area. With crop prices soaring, we could all feel the effects of this drought at the grocery store.

Corn and soybeans are the big 2 crops that are struggling right now. But, these aren’t the only things you will see a price hike in. Corn and soybean products are used in a majority of the foods we buy every day.

"All the uses we have for corn, whether it's the corn sugars, or whether it's the starches. Corn is used in so many things, and soybeans are used in more products." – Said Roger Hadley, the President of the Allen County Farm Bureau.

Although the USDA is still optimistic about yields and prices, the President of the Allen County Farm Bureau - Roger Hadley - isn't convinced.

"Well right now the USDA is saying with the poor crops it's not going to bother us much. It's going to hurt the cattle price more than anything, but I don't buy that. I think they’re a little off base at this stage. We've got corn prices projected this fall, with a normal crop, they were looking to be around $5 a bushel, right now corn is over $7 a bushel. That's over a 50% increase over what they projected corn prices to be."

It’s all a waiting game though. We are still a bit away from harvest time. The one key factor to crop prices and grocery prices is the rain. There is still some hope for some farmers across the area. If we were to get some good, heavy, soaking rain soon, it might help some of the crops bounce back. One day of rain with a half inch of accumulation won’t cut it. We would need a few weeks where it rains good and hard for several days. Even then, the crops won’t rebound completely.

Hadley said that if we were to get that good heavy rain, he may be able to pull about 50 bushels from his fields. In an average year he could pull up to 150-200 bushels. At this point though, something is better than nothing.