May 23, 2012

USDA gives up to excellent rating for 81% Iowa corn

The 2012 Iowa corn crop gets 60% good condition rating and 21% excellent for the newly-planted corn, according to the USDA.

Agronomists generally consider a 70% good to excellent rating indicative of a potentially strong crop. Iowa's April and May plantings were aided this year by timely April rainfall, which ease concerns about dry soil conditions.

Conditions are almost as good in Illinois, which ranks number two behind Iowa in corn production and where the crop is rated 79% good to excellent.

Another sign of a strong crop; eighty-one% of Iowa's corn crop has emerged versus a five-year average of 59%.

Farmers traditionally like an early planted and emerged crop, helping it to pollinate earlier before late July and August heat and also making it less vulnerable to early frost in September.

The USDA report shows that 85% of Iowa's soy crop was planted as of Sunday, compared to a normal 60% by this date. Twenty-six% of the soy crop has emerged, double the normal progress by this date.

Weather concerns predominated on the CBOT Monday, where the December corn contract gained US$0.03 per bushel to US$5.40 and November soy were up US$0.18 to US$13.06.

"Traders fear that may be the high point if the current warm and dry pattern locks in for the next month, as Commodity Weather Group suggests," said analyst Arlan Suderman of Farm Futures Magazine.

Some long range weather forecasts have predicted a summer that will be hotter and drier than the corn belt has experienced in recent years. That propped up corn prices that had dropped more than 15% in the last month on expectations of a big crop that would return US corn surpluses to more normal levels of nearly 2 billion bushels.