Grains Mixed This Morning | Monday, Aug. 18, 2025

Ahead of 9:20 a.m. CT, December corn was up 1¾¢ at $4.07 per bushel.

This morning, USDA announced unknown destinations are buying 124,000 metric tons of corn for the 2025/2026 marketing year.

November soybeans were up 1¼¢ at $10.43¾ per bushel.

December CBOT wheat was down 2¾¢ at $5.24¼ per bushel. December KC wheat was down 3¢ at $5.25½ per bushel. December Minneapolis wheat was down a penny at $5.88¼.

“The focus this week will be on the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour,” said Arlan Suderman, chief commodities economist at StoneX. “This tour has followed the same routes for scouting the Midwest corn and soybean crops for several decades. The negative side of that is that it misses many high-production areas — especially in the northwestern Midwest where the crops are doing the best this year. Those areas didn’t have much corn 25 years ago.

“The positive side of following the same routes is that you can compare each year’s sample results with the history of that route. Pay more attention to the pictures and comments emerging from the various scout groups moving across the Midwest than you do the actual yield reports. Tour participants assume normal seed size of 90,000 seeds per bushel in their yield checks, which may or may not be the case. But the scout reports from the field can provide valuable insight into how widespread — or not — are various anecdotal problems that we typically hear about ahead of the tour, such as pollination issues, disease problems, etc.”

Concerning corn yield, Suderman also noted this morning the U.S. corn crop is maturing quickly this year, which he said is “never good” for yield.

“Speeding up the maturation process tends to result in smaller kernels on the corn ear — requiring more kernels to make a bushel, and therefore lower yields,” he said. “A 5% smaller kernel is hard for most people to detect visually, so it generally does not show up until the combines roll through the fields.”

Ahead of 9:20 a.m. CT, October live cattle were down 58¢ at $230.08 per hundredweight (cwt). September feeder cattle were down 73¢ at $346.63 per cwt. October lean hogs were up 10¢ at $90.20 per cwt.

October crude oil was down 36¢ at $61.62 per barrel.

The U.S. Dollar Index September contract was up to 97.90.

The S&P 500 Index was down 2.07 points, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 7.04 points. 

Published: 9:42 a.m. CT