U.S. Midwest Floods Delay Corn Sowing After Drought Curbed Crop

Rain in the northern U.S. Midwest last week spurred flooding along rivers as far south as Tennessee, delaying corn planting a year after drought cut production of the grain to a six-year low.

Areas of Iowa and Illinois, the largest U.S. corn-growing states, were under flood warnings today along the Mississippi and Illinois rivers and tributaries, National Weather Service data show. Flood warnings stretched from Michigan to northern Arkansas and Tennessee. Crests already reached records along parts of the Des Plaines and Illinois rivers in Illinois, and the Mississippi River is at moderate to major flood stages across Missouri, AccuWeather Inc. said in an online statement.