Corn planting in the US should be closing in on completion this week. Rain in the short range forecast for this week could slow the final stages of planting; see current radar with corn/soybean regions shaded below.  As we are now in June, corn planting progress to date pushes corn to a ‘late plant’ scenario with our models, which highlights the potential for yield limitations. Soybeans will be a bigger story this week as crop is likely no more than 70% complete. Early activity focuses on expectations for planting progress that will be released in today’s USDA-NASS report (4:00 pm EST). Coupled with the planting delays are the expectations for lower bean inventories (per a 12 May USDA report). Dryness in some of the main grain/oilseed growing regions in South America (Argentina’s bean estimates reduced again), Western Australia and China will add to the uncertainty regarding crop size. In addition, the FAO food price index remains firm and crude oil is now moving to the upper $60 range with WTI crude futures above $67, the highest since last November.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 1st, 2009 at 12:48 pm and is filed under Agriculture, Global Commodities, Global Weather, Grains, United States, weather. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.