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Corn rating decline surprises some analysts

The four percent decline in the corn condition rating in Monday’s crop progress report surprised some analysts.

The nationwide good to excellent rating for corn fell from 75 to 71 percent.

Rich Nelson with Allendale says the biggest declines were in the western Corn Belt.

“Colorado fell by 26 percent in just one week, Nebraska by 12, Texas by 10 and Kansas by 6,” Nelson says

And while it’s still very early in the growing season, Nelson says it has caused a slight shift in thinking about this year’s crop.

“It certainly helped us move from a very strong comparison year—years with a higher than trend yield—and now we’re dipping just below that discussion point.”

Nelson says traders will be closely monitoring weather forecasts over the next couple of weeks for potentially hot conditions in July.