CBOT corn sags as US crop weather bolsters yield prospects

CHICAGO, July 28 (Reuters) - Chicago Board of Trade corn futures declined on Monday, with the most-active December contract hitting a two-week low, as weather forecasts for milder temperatures and timely rains this week in much of the Corn Belt fueled expectations for large U.S. harvests, traders said.

• CBOT September corn CU25 settled down 5-3/4 cents at $3.93-3/4 per bushel.

• New-crop December corn CZ25 ended down 5 cents at $4.14 after dipping to $4.12-3/4, its lowest since July 14.

• Ahead of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's weekly crop progress report due later on Monday, analysts surveyed by Reuters on average expected the government to rate 73% of the U.S. corn crop in good or excellent condition, down from 74% last week. Still, if confirmed, the rating would be the highest for this time of year since 2016.

• Additional market pressure stemmed from weekend news that Argentina's government announced a reduction in export taxes on agricultural goods including soybeans and corn. Argentina is the world's No. 3 corn exporter.

• Traders shrugged off supportive export news. The USDA confirmed private sales of 225,000 metric tons of U.S. new-crop corn to Mexico and another 229,000 tons to undisclosed destinations, including 194,000 tons of new-crop corn and 35,000 tons of old-crop corn.

• Separately, the USDA reported export inspections of U.S. corn in the latest week at 1,522,174 metric tons, topping a range of trade expectations for 700,000 to 1,400,000 tons. USDA/I

• Farmers in Brazil's center-south had harvested 68% of their second corn crop as of last Thursday, agribusiness consultancy AgRural said on Monday, up 13 percentage points from the previous week but below the 91% reported a year earlier.