The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is expected to hold its good-to-excellent ratings for both corn and soybeans steady as some timely rains stabilized crops as they passed through key development phases, according to the average estimate in a survey of 12 analysts on Monday.
The average of analysts’ estimates in a Reuters poll pegged good-to-excellent ratings for corn at 65%. Forecasts ranged from 64% to 66%, with a median of 65%.
The USDA’s good-to-excellent ratings for soybeans were expected to come in at 60%, with estimates ranging from 59% to 62%. The median soybean estimate also was 60%.
The government is scheduled to publish its report at 3 p.m. CDT (2000 GMT) on Monday.
U.S. spring wheat crop conditions are expected to have eroded to 10% good to excellent, down 1 percentage point from a week earlier.
A severe drought in the northern U.S. Plains continued to add tremendous stress to crops there. Last week’s spring wheat rating was the lowest for mid-July since 1988.
Analysts expected the USDA to show the harvest of winter wheat as 84% complete, up 11 percentage points from a week earlier. Spring wheat harvest was seen as 4% complete.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Mark Weinraub; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)