Concerns about an early frost sent grain and oilseed futures higher on Sept. 8, only to retreat after the weekend as the frost threat abated. Weather concerns were heightened by the late development of corn and soybean crops across northern states.
“There may be a little bit of frost in Montana and the northernmost areas of North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin, but there’s not going to be a hard freeze in the Corn Belt,” said David Salmon, owner of Weather Derivatives, a Belton, Mo.-based energy and agricultural weather consulting service. He expects temperatures in northern areas may dip to around 30 degrees this week, but probably not to the key threshold of 28 degrees that will damage plants.
Salmon said there will be a brief warm-up and then another bout of cold, wet weather around Sept. 22-24, but still no hard freeze. It’s not unusual for the northern Corn Belt to get its first freeze in the third week of September, he noted.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture in its weekly Crop Progress report Monday afternoon rated none of the corn in Minnesota and North Dakota mature as of Sept. 7 compared with 13% as the five-year average for the date for both states, with South Dakota at 5% (12% average), Wisconsin at 3% (10% average) and Michigan at 6% (13% average). Corn mature in Iowa, the top-producing state, was 6% (27% average) and in No. 2 Illinois was 17% (36% average).