Row Crops Today — June 8, 2026
The 5-minute 5 AM brief for row crop producers and ag professionals
Headline Stack
🌧️ Level 2 excessive-rainfall risk covers Missouri Valley and Southern Plains through Tuesday
🌽 July corn falls 29¼¢ to contract low ahead of USDA June Acreage Report
🌍 China restores access for 400+ U.S. beef facilities and resumes poultry imports
🔬 Ohio State: late-planted corn EONR can drop to 96 lb N/acre in warm, dry years
Top Story
🌧️ Flood Watches stretch from Texas to the Ohio Valley as repeated downpours hit saturated ground. — LINK
A Level 2 of 4 risk for excessive rainfall covers the Missouri Valley, Southern Plains and Lower Mississippi Valley on Sunday, with the same threat extending into the Tennessee and Ohio valleys on Monday as a slow-moving upper-level low pulls Gulf moisture inland. Widespread totals of 1 to 2 inches are expected from Texas to Indiana through Tuesday, with localized amounts above 3 inches where storms train over the same ground. "Due to heavily saturated ground from recent rain, flash flooding will become increasingly likely with repeated rounds of storms," the FOX Forecast Center said. Emergency rescues were already underway in parts of Central Texas Saturday. The flood threat covers Dallas, Oklahoma City, Nashville and St. Louis, while drought-stressed areas of Arkansas and Tennessee stand to benefit from the rainfall before the upper-level low weakens over the Midwest by midweek.
More This Week
🌽 July corn notches contract low as funds liquidate ahead of June Acreage Report. — LINK
July corn fell 29¼ cents last week to a contract low, while December corn dropped 29 cents, with funds liquidating across the ag complex as wheat and soybeans also etched multi-month lows.
"Record ethanol production in 2025 of 16.49 billion gallons was largely achieved by higher blend rates and a notable increase in domestic usage," Pro Farmer reported, noting U.S. ethanol nameplate capacity has grown to roughly 18.436 billion gallons per year.
USDA's survey-based June Acreage Report is due at the end of the month; mostly favorable early-season U.S. growing conditions and disappointment over the pace of China demand following last month's Trump–Xi summit have weighed on prices.
🌍 China restores access for 400+ U.S. beef plants, resumes poultry imports. — LINK
China committed to purchasing at least $17 billion per year of U.S. agricultural products through 2028 on top of existing soybean commitments of 25 million metric tons annually for three years; Reuters reports total U.S. farm exports to China could approach $28–$30 billion a year, up from $8 billion last year.
"When I say aggregate, I mean everything else. That could be soybeans, that could be beef, that could be grains, that could be dairy products, all kinds of things," said U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
China renewed expired listings for more than 400 U.S. beef facilities and resumed poultry imports from states USDA has determined to be free of highly pathogenic avian influenza; the 2022 peak for U.S. farm exports to China was $38 billion.
🔬 Ohio State research: late-planted corn N needs hinge on weather, not the calendar. — LINK
In a 2007 Ohio trial, the economically optimal nitrogen rate for late-planted corn dropped to 96 lb N/acre versus 134 lb N/acre for early-planted corn under warm, dry June–July conditions; in 2006, late- and early-planted EONRs were nearly identical at 170 vs. 166 lb N/acre.
"Economic optimum N rates do not necessarily vary greatly between hybrids with different genetic backgrounds," the study authors concluded, after testing five hybrids across four N rates and two planting windows.
Greg LaBarge of Ohio State writes that typical Ohio grower N rates range from 140 to 230 lb N/acre, and that year-to-year weather variability — not planting date alone — is the biggest driver of corn nitrogen requirements.
Basis Watch
Colorado East Central corn basis firmed 10 cents at the top end on Friday, June 5, leading the day's corn moves. Both North Dakota North Central and North Dakota Northwest improved 5 cents, and Minnesota South gained 7 cents on the low end. Nebraska locations across Central, East Central, and Southeast saw modest 3-cent improvements, while South Dakota East Central firmed 3 cents on both ends. A handful of Illinois locations in Little Egypt, Southwest, and West softened 2 cents.
In soybeans, Iowa North Central and Iowa Southwest each strengthened 10 cents at the top end, with Missouri Northwest and South Dakota Southeast also improving 10 cents. Minnesota South firmed 5 cents on both ends. Illinois North new-crop soybeans softened 1 cent.
Source: USDA AMS
U.S. ethanol production reached a record 16.49 billion gallons in 2025, with nameplate capacity now near 18.44 billion gallons per year — a structural corn demand floor even as July futures slide to contract lows.
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