Crop Conditions Holding Strong

Corn and soybean crops retained their good-to-excellent ratings despite isolated dry weather throughout the Corn Belt. USDA’s July 23rd Crop Progress report revealed 72 percent of the U.S. corn crop in good-to-excellent condition as of the week ending July 22, the same percentage as the prior week.

The good-to-excellent ratings were slightly above expectations of a small drop to 71 percent of the crop in good-to-excellent condition, but far above the prior year’s level of 64 percent and a bit above the five-year average of 70 percent. Per USDA’s report, the percent of the crop in poor to very poor condition was 9 percent again this week, remaining in line with prior-week levels.

For soybeans, USDA estimates that 70 percent of the soybean crop is in good-to-excellent condition, up 1 percentage point from the prior week, but up 13 percentage points from the prior year’s level. Current conditions are slightly higher than the five-year average of 65 percent good-to-excellent. Like corn conditions, the percent of the soybean crop in poor or very poor condition remained unchanged from the prior week’s level of 8 percent.

Compared to the five-year average, many states have much better corn and soybean conditions. Throughout much of the Corn Belt the good-to-excellent ratings are well above historical average levels, in fact, eight corn states and six soybean states have good-to-excellent conditions at least 10 percent above the five-year average, Figures 1 and 2.