COLUMBIA, Mo. - "We have a full fledged drought." That summarizes the weather report from Pat Guinan, University of Missouri (MU) Extension climatologist. He sees no immediate relief in the forecast.

"The corn is about shot," said Bill Wiebold, MU Extension agronomist, of his research plots at the MU Bradford Farm, Columbia. "Even normal rainfall, if it came now, would not be enough."

Corn must have moisture during the time when tassels release pollen and the ears put out silks. Pollen landing on silks sets corn kernels on the cob.

The soybean fields, although short, can still make a crop if rains come before the beans stop blooming, Wiebold said.

Soybean plant keep resetting blossoms three or four times trying to set pods, if pollination does not occur the first time.

"Corn yields have been hurt considerably," Wiebold said. "Yield losses can run 30 to 40 percent, even if we get rain in August. We can make a soybean crop, if the rains come."

Guinan is not optimistic about the outlook for rain for at least another week. A high-pressure dome over the state will bring triple-digit temperatures to Missouri and block rains forecast for Iowa and northern Illinois. "We may catch a corner of that rain in extreme northeast Missouri," he added.

"We are in a serious situation, with a good portion of the state high and dry," said Guinan, who provides farmers agricultural weather outlooks through the MU Commercial Agriculture network.

During the past five weeks, rainfall deficits run three to four inches over large portions of Missouri, with the driest areas in central and northeast Missouri.

"At Columbia, only eight one-hundredths of an inch of rain fell in the last 37 days," Guinan said. "You go back 17 years, to 1988, to find a similar dry period during the growing season. Historically, the only years with dry periods of this magnitude occurred in 1936 and 1984."

On his drought map, Guinan showed the only counties that have received rainfall are on the state's borders. An area in northwest Missouri from Princeton to north of St. Joseph received one to two inches of precipitation. Counties from Kansas City south to Neosho along the border with Kansas also received rain. Likewise, counties adjoining Arkansas received scattered rainfall all the way to the Bootheel. The southeast region received heavy rains from the remnants of Hurricane Dennis.

"That leaves a very large dry zone over the middle of the state and in the northeast," Guinan said.

Wayne Flannery, extension agronomist in Holt County, said the area received two inches of rain. "Crops look better, and we have few insect or disease problems."

To the east, at Linneus, Mo., Leon McIntyre reported only 0.2 inch of rainfall. "It was enough to settle the dust, but it was gone in an hour."

Wayne Bailey, MU Extension entomologist, said many insects thrive in dry weather. "Potato leafhoppers can destroy a newly harvested alfalfa field. They eat off regrowth as it emerges.

"It takes only one leafhopper per five sweeps to be at the economic threshold for treatment," Bailey said. "That's not many leafhoppers."

Grasshoppers prefer dry weather also. Reports of nymphs are common.

Some unusual insect infestations have popped up. "Blister beetles were discovered eating silks off of corn ears in fields south of Kansas City," Bailey said. "I had never seen that before. We assume that is because that is the only thing moist left to eat."

Japanese beetles, usually found on ornamental plants, especially around golf courses, were found this week in cornfields near Ste. Genevieve, Mo.

Beetle traps are being distributed to MU regional agronomists to assist in scouting for the pest.

Bailey alerted growers to be on the lookout for soybean aphids, which have built large numbers in northern states. "We don't know if they like drought or not," Bailey said. "We don't have much experience with them."

Drought reports are available on a new Internet site, Wiebold said. Crop assistance is at http://www.psu.missouri.edu/agronx/mudroughtpage/.

The website links to national drought monitor maps and contains photographs illustrating drought and insect damage.