The U.S. corn and soybean crops are in phenomenally good shape for the first week of August, said the weekly Crop Progress report, despite dry July weather in the western Corn Belt. Some 74 percent of the corn crop rated as good or excellent as of Sunday, down 1 point from a week ago. Soybeans were unchanged at 70 percent good and excellent. Traders expected a 1-point decline in condition for both crops.
The halcyon ratings encourage expectations of record-setting harvests and sharply lower commodity prices. INTL FCStone, a commodity brokerage, estimates a record 14.455 billion bushels of corn and 3.865 billion bushels of soybeans. Its estimates, released on Tuesday, are similar to estimates from the Linn Group and Doane Advisory Services.
June was remarkably wet in much of the Midwest. Sioux Falls, South Dakota, had a record 13.7 inches of rain in June and only 0.8 inch from July 1 to 29, says the Drought Monitor. Mason City, in north-central Iowa, had 0.9 inch in that period, and 0.99 inch fell on Cahokia, Illinois. “Due to antecedent wetness and persistently cool conditions, impacts from July dryness have been slow to emerge. However, pockets of abnormal dryness have begun to develop in a few areas of the western and southwestern Corn Belt,” said the Drought Monitor.