09/23/24 Afternoon CommStock Report – Drought of 2025?

Dr. Elwynn Taylor could fill seats in farm outlook meetings each season as farmers had learned to respect the ISU Climatologist. There were weathermen and there were agronomists. Talyor was one of the first climatologists who assimilated into both. He was one of the first weather scientists to connect the Pacific ENSO to summer corn-belt weather. In fact, the -7/+7 90-day SOI benchmark used to delineate the existence of El Nino/La Nina used by the industry was set by him. He had researched a number of climate cycles that would show up in the US trendline corn yield. There are many good climatologists today that are being helped by base climate knowledge that was first determined by Taylor in his career that they are building upon. Taylor was on the cutting edge of climate research that exploded during his era with the advent of technology in both data collection and analysis. Today there is an AI weather model which would not have surprised him at all. For example, Climate Scientist Eric Snodgrass is “always working on his models” building and remodeling his website. While he is paid by Nutrien Ag which supports his work I think that he is independent…