Planting of this year’s corn and soybean crops in the United States is winding down. For the most part, the crops were seeded in favorable conditions. 

In some cases, reports came in that the crops went into dry soils despite spring rains and more precipitation is needed soon for crop development. We are now at a stage where more emphasis will be placed on weather and crop development. 

This is also the stage of the marketing year when we start receiving crop condition reports from across the Corn Belt. 

While these can give us an idea of crop potential, history has proven several times that it is nearly impossible to predict final yield by using crop condition.

Even with seeding almost wrapped up, we continue to hear debate over this year’s actual plantings in the U.S. and the reasons that the total of corn and soybean acres was so much lower than expectations. 

The immediate response is that the USDA was too low in its March figures, but we are now seeing a different opinion. Last...