(DesMoines Register) – Corn and soybeans have extended their drought-powered rallies overnight the Globex electronic exchange Aunday evening.
Corn traded up 27 cents per bushel to $7.70 and soybeans were up 26 cents per bushel to $15.79.
Corn is up $2.50 per bushel and soybeans up about $4.50 since early June as the magnitude of this year’s drought, now already considered the worst in a quarter century, has become more apparent.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture already rates 60 percent of this year’s corn and soybean crops fair to poor.
The rating to be updated Monday is expected to show further deterioration in the crops after a week of only sporadic rainfall. Rainfall totals in much of Iowa didn’t exceed a quarter-inch, although a narrow corridor running northeast from Newton between Waterloo and Cedar Rapids received between an inch and a half and two inches of rain Friday and Saturday.
Temperatures are expected to rise to near 100 degrees this week in Iowa with chances for only scattered showers.
More than half of Iowa’s soils are considered moisture-deficient and all of the state is listed by the U.S. Drought Monitor as being at least abnormally dry, with central and eastern Iowa being in moderate to heavy drought.
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