Grain traders around the globe will be closely following the annual Pro Farmer Crop Tour of corn (ZCZ26) and soybeans (ZSX26) in the U.S. Corn Belt that begins today and ends Thursday evening. Crop tour scouts will roll into an eastern Corn Belt that has taken a week of record rainfall and a western Corn Belt still working through drought.
More than 100 crop scouts left Columbus, Ohio, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on planned routes this morning. “They will be measuring a corn crop that looks very different, depending on which side of the Mississippi River they are standing on,” said respected veteran ag and policy journalist Jim Wiesemeyer of “Wiesemeyer’s Perspectives” and Ag Bull Media. “The eastern leg drives straight through a flood corridor that has produced record river crests, downed corn and standing water from central Illinois into eastern Ohio. The western leg samples a crop that has been short of moisture for most of the summer.”
