Corn futures on the Chicago Board of Trade surged on Monday due to continued concerns about slowing seedlings in the US corn belt because of wet weather, traders said. New-crop December corn in after-hours electronic trade on the CBOT was up 10 cents at $4.00-1/2 per bushel, after hitting $4.01, the highest since April 9. July was up 8 cents at $3.98-3/4.
"Investors are taking their positions before the US Department of Agriculture announcement today," said a trader in Seoul. The USDA will release a crop planting estimate later on Monday and traders were forecasting that up to half or less of planting had been completed in the United States, behind the roughly 60 percent five-year average by this time of the year. Rainy weather in parts of the US western Midwest, a key corn-growing area, has led to slow seedlings of the 2007 corn crop.