This looks to be the heat wave of the summer and yesterday I was hearing that, depending on duration and moisture, as much as 5% of the expected crop could be written off. Based on the previously estimated 13.763 billion bushel harvest that would be almost 700 million bushels not brought in and any idea of prices in the low fours would be gone.
From Agrimoney:
US heatwave talk sends corn, soybean futures soaring
Corn and soybean futures soared as weather fears for the US crop shifted up a gear, with the weekend proving largely dry in the Midwest, and the expectations of a heatwave this week intensifying.Corn for December hit $4.89 a bushel at one point, a gain of 4.0% and the highest for the contract in a month.Soybeans for November reached $13.89 ¼ a bushel, a gain of 5.2%, and the contract's highest in 11 months.The gains came followed a weekend which delivered only a few showers, albeit largely in the Corn Belt where rain is particularly needed, but with amounts at best 0.75 inches, according to weather service MDA.The weekend also failed, as Midwest farmers had been hoping, to ameliorate expectations for high temperatures this week."Mostly dry weather and very warmer temperatures this week will maintain moisture stress," MDA said.'Heat can only be called extreme'David Tolleris at WxRisk.com restated a forecast for many parts of the US to see the hottest Labor Day weekend (next weekend) on record....MORE
Today's outlook for the upper Midwest and eastern Great Plains:
The drought monitor shows dramatic improvement over the situation in 2012:
Current U.S. Drought Monitor
| The data cutoff for Drought Monitor maps is Tuesday at 7 a.m.
Eastern Standard Time. The maps, which are based on analysis of the
data, are released each Thursday at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. NOTE: To view regional drought conditions, click on map below. State maps can be accessed from regional maps. |
Meanhile, NOAA is predicting a bit more improvement in the moisture levels:
