U.S. Corn, Soybean Ratings Fall for Fourth Week on Dry Weather

U.S. corn- and soybean-crop conditions declined for a fourth straight week as hot, dry weather curbs yield prospects.

About 48 percent of the corn was rated good or excellent as of yesterday, down from 56 percent a week earlier and 69 percent a year earlier, the Department of Agriculture said today in a report. Approximately 45 percent of soybeans earned the top ratings, down from 53 percent last week and 66 percent a year earlier, the department said. Little or no rain has fallen in most of the Great Plains and Midwest in the past week, National Weather Service data show.

“The weather hasn’t changed,” Larry Glenn, an analyst at Frontier Ag in Quinter, Kansas, said before the report. Crop prices will keep rising and conditions will fall further “until the weather gets a hint of moisture,” he said.

The spring-wheat crop was rated 71 percent good or excellent, compared with 77 percent a week earlier, USDA data show. The winter-wheat crop was 69 percent harvested, up from 59 percent a week earlier, the department said.

To contact the reporter on this story: {Tony C. Dreibus} in Chicago at tdreibus@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Enoch at denoch@bloomberg.net; Patrick McKiernan at pmckiernan@bloomberg.net