CBOT corn sags on generally favorable US crop weather

CHICAGO, June 16 (Reuters) - Chicago Board of Trade corn futures declined on Monday as forecasts for rains this week bolstered crop production prospects, traders said.

• CBOT July corn CN25 settled down 9-3/4 cents at $4.34-3/4 per bushel and the September contract CU25 set a life-of-contract low at $4.18-1/4 before closing at $4.19-3/4, down 8-3/4 cents for the day.

• New-crop December corn CZ25 ended down 8 cents at $4.35 a bushel.

• Welcome rains over the weekend favored portions of the Plains as well as the northwest and southeastern Midwest, meteorologists said.

• Ahead of a weekly crop progress report due on Monday from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, analysts surveyed by Reuters on average expected the government to rate 71% of the U.S. corn crop in good to excellent condition, unchanged from last week.

• Bullish export data underpinned the futures market. The USDA reported export inspections of U.S. corn in the latest week at 1,673,023 metric tons, at the high end of a range of trade expectations for 1,000,000 to 1,700,000 tons.

• Farmers in Brazil's key center-south region harvested 5.2% of their 2025 second corn crop as of last Thursday, up from 1.9% the previous week and below the 21% reported a year earlier, agribusiness consultancy AgRural said on Monday.