Your Pro Farmer newsletter (June 17, 2023) is now available

Drought continues to expand and now covers more than half of U.S. corn and soybean areas. The National Weather Service’s extended weather outlook through September calls for improved conditions across much of the western Corn Belt, but eastern areas of the region are expected to experience an expansion of drought. As moisture stress and drought spreads across the Corn Belt, comparisons to 2012 are increasing. But World Weather Inc. urges some caution and perspective in comparing the two years. It says comparison years when there was a transition from La Niña to El Niño during the first half of the year within the 18-year cycle, like this year, would be 1969, 1987 and 2005. Yields in those three years averaged 99.9% of the previous record for corn and 101.3% for soybeans, though there was much more variability for corn yields. On the economic front, the Fed paused its monetary policy tightening but indicated more interest rate hikes are coming. We cover all of these items and much more in this week’s newsletter, which you can download here.