There was some week on week progress made in corn planting in the US according to the weekly crop progress report that came out after the close of the futures session.
The eastern corn belt states of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio made some progress but many analyst are now of the opinion of what you are seeing now will be close to the final tally. Illinois went from 45% sown last week to 73%, Indiana from 31% to 67% and Ohio from 33% to just 50%. All in all 83% of the US corn crop is in the ground when normally the US would basically be finished planting.
Last month’s USDA report had US corn production pencilled in at 381.78mt. With missed acres alone production could be closer to 355mt. Yields are likely to suffer but this will be difficult to calculate considering much of the dryland has basically seen the start of an irrigated field this year. Maybe this is something to consider in next month’s report.
The corn condition rating is pegged at 59% compared to last year at 77%. Last year’s crop yielded 176.4bu/ac, I’ve used 176bu to calculate production at 355mt, so it’s easy to see yield may well play a big role in the weeks to come.
As expected soybean sowing and emergence is also lagging well behind the average in the States. Winter wheat condition ratings were unchanged week on week and spring wheat sowing has basically caught up to the average pace.
Over the border in Canada the durum belt remains dry for the week ahead. The 30 days rainfall map for Saskatchewan shows that the durum belt has only received around 30% – 40% of the normal rainfall during that time. No record yields there this year.