An annual tour of the corn belt found evidence that a recent U.S. government forecast for record production might be a bit too rosy, because hot weather has appeared to harm the crop, according to Bloomberg. “Dozens of people — among them farmers, agronomists and journalists — inspecting fields on this week’s Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour are reporting corn yields that trail projections made by the U.S. Department of Agriculture less than two weeks ago,” Bloomberg said.
Agrimony reported that tour participants found heavy soybean pod counts, which bodes well for yield prospects. “Soybean sales for new crop were outstanding and blew away expectations,” said Joe Lardy, at CHS Hedging, according to Agrimoney.
The tour is little more than halfway through, and the findings are not entirely clear-cut, Bloomberg said. However, they point to crop conditions that lend some support to corn, the price of which is heading for a fourth straight yearly decline following a series of bumper harvests.
In early August, analysts said the U.S. corn crop could be far larger than the record harvest projected by the government, with estimates ranging as high as 15.1 billion bushels, based on continued good weather in the Midwest. The prospect of a mammoth crop was driving corn prices well below the cost of production, Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley said at the time.
Bloomberg noted the Pro Farmer tour is a “fixture on the U.S. grain market calendar, providing on-the-ground intelligence just ahead of the harvest season. Attendees are organized into two legs that visit a total of seven states. Small groups travel hundreds of miles each day by car on designated routes, stopping off every 12 to 15 miles to count viable corn ears and the number of grain kernels, as well as measuring the number of soybean pods.”
“It looks a lot better from the road than what it does” in the field, said Matt Bennett, a tour participant and owner of Windsor, Illinois-based Bennett Consulting, according to Bloomberg. He noted plant-health problems and the high presence in Nebraska of “green snap,” a phenomenon where corn stalks break from high winds during rapid-growth stages. “In my opinion, the Nebraska crop’s been overstated.”