COLUMN-Crop Watch: Heat boosts growth but storms present kinks: Braun

By Karen Braun

NAPERVILLE, Illinois, June 23 (Reuters) - It was hot and steamy across the U.S. Corn Belt last week, precisely what corn and soybeans needed following extended cool weather last month.

But severe storms have damaged two of the 11 Crop Watch corn fields, which could make them vulnerable down the road in the event of any additional dicey weather, particularly high winds.

Continued heat and humidity across the Central United States over the next few days will elevate the thunderstorm risk, though Crop Watch fields should be in a good spot if rain and warmth are the only two outcomes.

Crop Watch corn conditions rose this week for an impressive fourth consecutive week, a streak that has never been observed in the project’s eight years. The unweighted, 11-field average score rose to 3.89 from 3.82 a week ago.

The Crop Watch producers assign weekly condition scores to their corn and soybean fields using a scale of 1 to 5. The ratings are similar to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s system, where 1 is very poor, 3 is average and 5 is excellent.

A big improvement was noted for the Ohio corn along with slight bumps in South Dakota, western Iowa and southeastern Illinois.

Heat and underwhelming rains have stressed the Nebraska corn field, reducing health. High winds toppled corn plants in Indiana, and although many of them have since popped back up, the bases of the affected plants have been destabilized, making them increasingly susceptible to future wind events.

The same thing happened in North Dakota, where deadly tornadoes and a derecho tore up fields and grain bins on Friday. Plants in the Crop Watch fields are still small, and any potential long-term storm damage is still being assessed state-wide.

Corn pollination will be in focus over the next several weeks, and the first two Crop Watch fields (western Illinois, Indiana) are expected to pollinate in about 10 days. The U.S. Climate Prediction Center on Thursday showed a potential hot and dry bias for the western Corn Belt next month - not what producers there would prefer.

At the national scale, analysts expect U.S. corn conditions to stay steady this week at 72% good-to-excellent. National conditions have improved for three consecutive weeks, the first instance over that same time frame since 2011.

National corn conditions have never risen four consecutive times over these same four weeks.

Crop Watch soybean conditions recorded their first improvement of the season, edging up to 3.2 from 3.18 a week ago. A bigger jump in Ohio and minor ones in South Dakota and southeastern Illinois offset a sizable drop in western Iowa, where chemicals from a nearby field caused permanent damage.

However, the western Iowa producer notes that those beans had been looking like the best ones he had ever raised on that farm, giving high hopes for the area’s prospects.

Analysts see national soybean conditions up slightly after last week’s unexpected decline, and the target of 67% good-to-excellent would be identical to the year-ago rating.

Karen Braun is a market analyst for Reuters. Views expressed above are her own.

Enjoying this column? Check out Reuters Open Interest (ROI), your essential new source for global financial commentary. ROI delivers thought-provoking, data-driven analysis of everything from swap rates to soybeans. Markets are moving faster than ever. ROI can help you keep up. Follow ROI on LinkedIn and X.