The condition of the US corn continued to slide this past week, while the soybean crop found its footing.
Monday’s USDA crop progress report pegged the national corn crop at 67% good to excellent as of Sunday, down 2 points from a week earlier and now 5 points lower over the past two weeks. Since debuting at 75% good to excellent in early June, the condition of the corn crop has now lost 8 points, although it remains the best for this time of year since 2020.
Meanwhile, the condition of the soybean crop was unchanged on the week at 67% good to excellent, down 5 points from its initial rating of the season on June 9.
Going into the report, traders were expecting a 1-point decline in the condition of both the corn and soybean crops compared to a week earlier. Portions of the upper Midwest were hit with heavy storms the past week that caused significant flooding in some cases.
In the largest production state of Iowa, the corn crop was rated 73% good to excellent as of Sunday, down 4 points on the week. On the other hand, the Illinois and Indiana corn crops improved, up 3 and 2 points, respectively, to 65% good to excellent. The Michigan crop improved as well, up 2 points to 73% good to excellent, while the Ohio crop gained 6 points to 66%. The North Dakota crop improved 2 points to 70% good to excellent.
As for soybeans, the condition of the Iowa crop eased 2 points to 72% good to excellent, while Illinois was up 5 points to 64% and Indiana up 3 points to 64%.
The condition of the Michigan soybean crop fell 3 points on the week to 59% good to excellent, but Ohio was up 2 points to 63%. The North Dakota crop dropped 2 points to 64%.
Across the country, 11% of the US corn crop was silking as of Sunday, up from 4% a week earlier and ahead of 7% last year and 6% on average.
The American soybean crop was 20% blooming, up from 8% the previous week. That is on par with last year and 5 points ahead of average. The national soy crop was 3% setting pods as of Sunday, versus 3% last year and 2% on average.
