Published:
Storm Exchange Releases Agriculture Weather Risk Outlook for October to December 2008
Frost Risk Has Diminished, Hurricane Ike Leaves Irreparable Damage; 6% Dip for Corn Crop, Soybeans Down 10%

Storm
Exchange, Inc., a market leader in grain market weather risk management
services, today released its October to December 2008 Agriculture
Weather Risk Outlook, holding steady on a 144 bushels per acre corn
yield estimate and predicting a 38.4 bushels per acre yield for a
struggling soybean crop. These numbers represent a 6% cut below trend for
corn and a 10% cut for soybeans. The USDA reduced their yield estimates in
early September from 155 bushels per acre to 152.3, bringing the forecast
below trend. Storm Exchange expects that the USDA will continue to lower
their estimate as the harvest season continues through the fall.
While the looming threat of a freeze that threatened the crop has
diminished, Storm Exchange projects that flood and wind damage caused by
Hurricane Ike will suppress both the corn and soybean crops. The late
season hurricane damage has further destabilized an already weak crop that
has never fully recovered from the severe flooding that occurred throughout
the Midwest during the spring 2008 planting season. Storm Exchange
estimates that the flood conditions of spring 2008 permanently impacted
10-12% of US corn.
"While the threat of a freeze has decreased, we're still not out of the
woods," said Gail
Martell, Storm Exchange Senior Agriculture Analyst. "When Ike swept
through the Midwest states, it left a trail of damage that we can't absorb
after the spring we had. This weather pattern does not bode well for the
harvest season."
Using a combination of atmospheric climate trends, advanced computer-driven
seasonal prediction models and analog forecasts, Storm Exchange produces
their seasonal Weather Risk Outlooks to provide businesses with statistical
probabilities of adverse weather conditions on a regional basis. The Storm
Exchange Agriculture Weather Risk Outlook for October to December 2008
breaks out corn and soybean yield estimates on an aggregate and
state-by-state basis. For more information on Storm Exchange's
state-by-state grain yield estimates, please visit www.cropprojections.com.
About Storm Exchange, Inc.
Storm Exchange provides
weather-related financial and information services in the language that
corporations and investors understand best: the bottom line.
Storm Exchange helps corporations improve performance by enabling them to
identify, measure, manage and hedge the impact of weather on income and
expenses. For investors, traders and insurers, the company delivers
information solutions that enable them to understand and anticipate how
weather impacts investment and underwriting performance.
Storm Exchange solutions focus on the business context and financial
relevance behind the weather. Services include media, industry-specific
intelligence, correlation models, proprietary analytics, forecasting tools,
and weather hedge solutions. These services, many of which are available on
leading information platforms such as Bloomberg, address the fundamental
drivers of financial performance that result from exposures to
precipitation, wind, temperature and other climate variables.
Storm Exchange is headquartered in New York and operates a weather research
center in State College, PA. The company is backed by leading private
equity investors Venrock Associates and RRE Ventures.
Copyright © 2008, MarketWire
Copyright © 2008, NewsBlaze,
Daily News
Tags: ,Agriculture:Farming, FinancialServices:InvestmentServices and Trading, FinancialServices:VentureCapital, FinancialServices:Insurance, ,NY,NEW YORK, NY
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