We won’t make too “much” of the rains that fell May 30-31 across
the Corn Belt… or of the May 25-26 storms that gave the northern
Corn Belt another drink of water. But, some of the driest areas of
Iowa, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana saw much-needed relief. Only
about half of Iowa received more than a half-inch of rain and very
few locations saw an inch. With rain still falling in Illinois Thursday,
some locations were just crossing the half-inch level.

Rain will sustain the corn crop, but it’s still far from ‘made’ —
May 30-31 rains will only sustain the corn crop and will do very little
to recharge soil moisture levels in Iowa and Illinois. In fact, the rain
may have been even more beneficial for the bean crop — the moisture
will encourage germination of some seed that’s been sitting in dry dirt
for a week (or longer). It will also help erase some of the soybean seedling
problems, such as “leafing” underground, as young plants should
now find the strength to poke through a softened crust.
And even the light shower in southern Corn Belt locations will be
encouragement for soft red winter (SRW) wheat producers to follow
harvest with a double-crop of soybeans.

Still a lot of rain needed to get soil moisture back to ‘normal’ —
The map below is one most haven’t seen before. It shows how many
inches of rain are needed to completely recharge top- and subsoil
moisture and to meet the moisture needs of all vegetation. Corn and
soybean crops could perform very well with rainfall totals below the
amounts needed to return conditions to normal, but it does an excellent
job of illustrating how these crops will rely on timely rains all season.

Despite dry conditions, corn still mostly ‘good’ to ‘excellent’
The first PF Crop Condition
Index (CCI) of the year for corn
promised a strong start. The second
update of the CCI erased
much of that early start and the
CCI is already below 2010 levels.
But as the last two growing seasons
proved, the key will be the
mid-summer trend. Rains last
week set the stage for at least a
slight recovery in the CCI for
corn in the week ended June 3.