Once again, we are at a heavily monitored period of the marketing year. Historically, once we get past the Fourth of July break, the trade tends to consider the crops as being “made” if they haven't encountered any stress up to that point. 

In recent years, this attitude has changed slightly, with more emphasis on weather in August and September. We have seen bushels both added and lost during that 60-day stretch. In fact, some agronomists believe the upcoming stretch of development can be just as critical if not more on final yields than conditions up to this point. 

While production is a factor in price discovery no matter what time of year, we are seeing less interest this year than in recent history with similar growing conditions. This is because of the demand destruction that took place on old-crop commodities following the COVID-19 outbreak last spring. 

Larger crops are expected to be harvested this year compared to last year, and at the same time, lower ...