By Mark Weinraub
CHICAGO, June 16 (Reuters) – U.S. corn ratings were the best in 20 years because of warm weather and plentiful soil moisture in growing states such as Iowa, North Dakota and Illinois during the past week, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data released on Monday.
The U.S. corn crop was rated 76 percent good to excellent as of June 15, the best mid-June rating for the crop since a 77 percent reading in 1994, according to USDA’s weekly crop conditions and progress report.
Corn in Iowa, the biggest production state for the grain, was rated 83 percent good to excellent. In Illinois, the crop was 76 percent good to excellent. In North Dakota, it was 84 percent good to excellent.
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Soybean ratings weakened by one percentage point, dropping below analysts’ expectations, to 73 percent good to excellent. That was still the best mid-June ratings for soybeans on record.
Analysts were expecting corn ratings of 75 percent good to excellent and soybean ratings of 74 percent good to excellent, according to the average of estimates in a Reuters poll.
In 1994, the last time good-to-excellent ratings were higher than 76 percent in mid-June, corn yields at harvest came in at a then-record 138.6 bushels per acre, a 38 percent jump from a year earlier.
The winter wheat harvest stood at 16 percent complete, lagging the average pace of 20 percent. Oklahoma stood at 47 percent complete and Texas 40 percent. The biggest hard red winter state, Kansas, had only two percent combined.
The condition of the U.S. spring wheat crop was 72 percent good to excellent, up from 68 percent last year at the same time.
