Moe Agostino fills us in on what he’s seen during his 12-state tour
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
The American corn and soybean crops are showing the effects of late plantings and heavy moisture, said Moe Agostino, chief commodity strategist with Farms.com Risk Management.
“The crop is short, wet and late,” he told Farms.com from Indiana during his eighth annual U.S. Corn Belt Crop Tour. “When I say small, I’m talking knee-high corn and ankle-high soybeans or shorter.”
Generally, however, crops are showing signs of good health, he said. They have good stands and are a “lush green color.”
Agostino’s 12-state tour began on July 2 and included stops in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, the Dakotas and Wisconsin.
Producers along Agostino’s journey have said they’ve lost yield and may not be able to make them up. Some corn fields showed signs of rolling while soybeans were cupping because of dry conditions.
Whether the crops will have a strong finish will depend on Mother Nature, Agostino said.
“We have to have a decent August, September and October,” he said. “We have to avoid the Oct. 1 frost. If conditions don’t become ideal, the situation is just going to get worse.”
Prevent plant acres could total eight million for corn and more than three million for soybeans, Agostino said. The USDA will provide an update on prevent plant acres in an Aug. 12 report.
How the U.S. crop conditions will affect commodity prices remains to be seen.
“The USDA has to tell the funds where we’re at,” Agostino said. “The Aug. 12 report will tell us if the USDA is going to lower yields.”
Subscribers to Agostino’s Farms.com Risk Management program receive one-page summaries from each state visited along the tour.