In the overnight session the grains were mixed with December corn down ¼ penny, November soybeans up 1 ¼ cents and December Wheat down ½ cent. Traders will be watching reports from the crop tour, where any suggestion that yields are not in line with the latest WASDE forecast will most likely cause market jitters.
Recent rains are helping to limit the driest spots to only 15 percent off the Midwest corn and soybean area. The 6-10 day weather models continue to show cooler than normal temperatures throughout the majority of the Central and Eastern U.S which should help corn filling. At this point the frost risk over the next two weeks remains very low.
Crop conditions were reported yesterday and were in line with analyst expectations. U.S soybeans rated good-to-excellent increased a percentage point to 60. Corn conditions held steady this week at 62 percent good-to-excellent and spring wheat condition improved by a percentage point to 34.
After the first day of the crop tour scouts announced that corn yield potential in south eastern South Dakota was below average and soybean pod counts were low as well. This shouldn’t come as a shock to the market considering the dry hot weather that area has seen throughout the growing season. The tour pegged South Dakota corn yield at 147.97 bushels per acre, down from 149.78 bushels a year ago and down 8.17 bpa from the three year moving average. Soybean pod counts were at 899.56 in a 3 by 3 foot square which is down from the three year average of 1,027.80. On the eastern leg of the tour, Pro Farmer pegged Ohio yield estimate was 164.62 bpa up from 148.96 bpa last year. The tour estimated the number of soybean pods counted in the 3 by 3 foot square was 1,107.01 pods, slightly below the three year average of 1,174.24 pods.
The Iranian animal feed importer SLAL issued tenders to purchase 200,000 metric tons of feed Barley and 200,000 metric tons of corn this morning. Japan also issued a regular tender to purchase 133,791 metric tons of feed-quality wheat from the U.S or Canada.
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