Heat and dryness will put significant stress on the corn and soyabean crops in the United States over the next week to 10 days, a private forecaster said on Friday. "The bottom line is it will be very hot and dry next week and any corn crop that is pollinating will have difficulty," Meteorlogix forecaster Joel Burgio said.
Burgio said the heat wave would have the most severe impact in the western Midwest crop region, including top producers Iowa and Nebraska, but the weather stress also will take a toll on crops grown in the eastern Midwest.
"The eastern Corn Belt is in a little better shape, but the dryness and heat over the next 5 to 7 days will deplete soil moisture and increase stress on corn and soyabeans," Burgio said.
The US corn crop is nearing the half-way point in its vital pollinating, or reproductive, stage and the soyabean crop is at the beginning of its key pod-setting stage.
Corn is vulnerable to harm from hot weather when it is pollinating and soyabean yields can be trimmed by hot weather when that crop is setting pods.
Burgio said temperatures will soar to 95 to 102 degrees (Fahrenheit) in the western Midwest by the weekend through next week.
In the eastern Midwest, temperatures will reach 92 to 98 over the next week, he said. Very little to no rain was expected to accompany the heat wave.
There were showers late this week in portions of the Midwest, but the coverage was relatively low and the rain will not keep the corn and soyabean crops from being harmed by the hot weather, Meteorlogix said.
Chicago Board of Trade corn and soyabean futures were expected to open lower on Friday on follow-through technical selling from declines on Thursday.
Pressure was also expected from talk of rainfall late this week in the Midwest.
However, many traders and veteran grains analysts were cautious of the calls for a lower open on Friday because of the explosive potential in the corn and soya market amid the outlooks for hot weather in the US grain belt.
"We may open lower, but my bet is we finish higher, maybe a lot higher," a grain analyst said.