Following last year’s record-setting drought, some Vigo County, Ind., farmers have turned to cover crops to help trap nitrogen in the ground to benefit this year’s crops.

Plants can adapt to extreme shifts in water availability, such as drought and flooding, but their ability to withstand these extreme patterns will be tested by future climate change, according to a study by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists and their cooperators.

Farmers in top U.S. grain states are planning to rotate to other crops after repeated plantings of corn on the same fields, combined with a devastating drought in 2012, badly hurt yields.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack this week designated 597 counties in 14 states as primary natural disaster areas due to drought and heat, making all qualified farm operators in the areas eligible for low-interest emergency loans.

Severe drought conditions reduced soybean yields last year by an average of 6.2% from 2011.

Much of the country remains in extreme or exceptional drought and no one is sure how yields will turn out in 2013.

There is a relatively high probability of large crops, increasing stocks, and lower corn and soybean prices in the 2013-14 marketing year.

U.S. Drought Outlook: Little Improvement Expected In Southeast And Midwest