Little Rain for Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri

While some states will benefit from some cooler weather and rain, major corn and soybean producers Iowa and Illinois will get little relief from drought conditions, and neither will Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri.

Missouri's corn crop is already almost a total loss, and Indiana's isn't much better. Whether rains come in those two states in regard to corn won't have any positive impact on the yields.

Rains are predicted to move into the overall Midwest next week, but projections are only for up to one half inch at most for most areas.

The majority of Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Kansas and Missouri will probably only get at most a tenth of an inch or rain, while the states of Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, northern Illinois and Ohio will get from .5 to an inch of rain. Combined it generates the .5 inches of rain mentioned earlier for the Midwest.

Some parts of Iowa and northern Missouri could also get on average about .5 inches of rain over the weekend. As usual, rain will be scattered and unpredictable as to how much it will help drought-stricken regions. But overall it doesn't look good.

In other words, the states with the majority of the corn will continue to suffer drought conditions, putting even more downward pressure on corn yields.

The conservative reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture should come in with another drop in projected corn yields on Monday, and possibly more for soybeans; although some have benefited from the recent rains in the Midwest.

Most grain experts have about 20 bushels per acre less in yields projections for corn than the USDA has at this time. That should come closer to one another on Monday, depending upon whether private analysts even further downgrade expected corn yields.

In the middle of next week the Commodity Weather Group (CWG) says temperatures in the mid 90s to 100s will probably return Wednesday and into Thursday at least.

According to the CWG, other crops starting to feel the impact of the drought, besides soybeans, are rice and cotton.

Iowa Corn Crop Weakening

With corn it doesn't take long for the health of the crop to change drastically, as the Iowa corn crop, after looking robust just about a weak ago, has started to falter as the ongoing drought starts to effect the crop much more than it had prior to this week.

Not too long ago the Iowa corn crop for 2012 was rated approximately 15 below 2011, but were considered in far better shape than the states surrounding it, according to a report from the USDA.

The USDA gave Iowa a 68 percent good-to-excellent rating. Illinois, the No. 2 producer behind Iowa, fell to 37 percent good to excellent. For other states, their good-to-excellent ratings were this: Indiana, 27 percent; Missouri, 34 percent; and Ohio, 49 percent.

While the other states will continue to falter, along with Iowa, the largest producer of corn and soybeans in the nation will be sure to have its good-to-excellent rating downwardly adjusted from its most recent levels when the next report from the USDA is released on Monday.

The areas of Iowa that are worsening are the upper northwest region of the state, as well as the eastern area.