Row Crops Today — June 15, 2026
The 5-minute 5 AM brief for row crop producers and ag professionals
Headline Stack
🌽 Rootless corn syndrome surfaces in May 12–16 plantings across central Illinois, eastern Iowa, eastern Missouri
📊 Purdue Ag Economy Barometer falls to 119 in May, Farm Capital Investment Index drops to 41
🫘 USDA lifts Argentina soybean crop 2 MMT to 50 MMT, July futures fall 9 cents to $11.13
🌧️ 10-day cool, wet pattern forecast for U.S. Corn Belt through mid-June
Top Story
🌽 Rootless corn syndrome appears in mid-May-planted fields across three Corn Belt states. — LINK
Corn planted between May 12 and May 16 across central Illinois, eastern Iowa, and eastern Missouri is showing rootless, or "floppy," corn syndrome at the V2 to V5 growth stages, with University of Illinois researchers tracing the issue to that narrow planting window followed by above-normal temperatures and cloudy days that disrupted crown-root development. Affected plants struggle to anchor, lean at the base, and in severe cases fall over before the nodal root system establishes. Scouting at V4–V5 is the operative window, and management options narrow quickly once plants reach V6. Producers are checking fields for crown-root development and weighing cultivation or row-cleaner passes to move soil around the base of plants where stands are at risk. Cases have been most concentrated in fields where dry surface soils followed planting and limited the crown roots' ability to reach moisture. Rootless corn typically recovers once a timely rain wets the upper soil profile and allows nodal roots to take hold, but stand losses can occur if strong winds arrive before recovery.
More This Week
📊 Purdue Ag Economy Barometer slips to 119 as input costs dominate concerns. — LINK
The Purdue University–CME Group Ag Economy Barometer fell from 121 in April to 119 in May, the Current Conditions Index dropped 8 points to its lowest level since December 2024, and the Farm Capital Investment Index declined to 41 — the lowest reading since September 2024.
"High input costs were once again the dominant concern in this month's survey," said Michael Langemeier, director of the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture. "In fact, more than half of producers identified input costs as their biggest concern overall, while nearly half said those costs are the primary factor limiting improvement in their farm's financial performance."
Only 14% of producers said their operation is financially better off than a year ago; about half of 2025 corn producers expect break-even prices to rise up to 6%, while nearly one-third expect increases of 10% or more.
🫘 USDA lifts Argentina soybean crop 2 MMT, pulling July futures down 9 cents. — LINK
The June WASDE raised Argentina's soybean production by 2 million metric tons to 50 MMT, lifting global 2025/26 soybean carryout by nearly 400,000 metric tons to roughly 125.5 MMT and pushing July U.S. soybean futures down more than 9 cents to about $11.13 per bushel.
New-crop U.S. soybean export sales fell more than 40% week-over-week to 141,500 metric tons, while total 2025/26 marketing-year sales came in at 211,292 metric tons, down nearly 24% from the prior week.
USDA held old-crop U.S. soybean ending stocks steady at 340 million bushels but shifted 20 million bushels from exports to crush; new-crop U.S. ending stocks were unchanged at 310 million bushels and Brazil's crop was held at 180 MMT.
🌧️ Cool, wet 10-day pattern locks in across the U.S. Corn Belt. — LINK
A cool, wet weather pattern is forecast across the U.S. Corn Belt through mid-June, with GFS model guidance signaling a shift toward hotter, drier conditions arriving in July.
Climate Impact Company's Ag Market Sunday Report flagged a concurrent heat-and-drought anomaly building across Western and Central Europe, with dangerous heat expected to drive drought development in key EU crop regions.
The pattern divergence sets up a two-sided weather market into July as U.S. row crops move through pollination windows and European wheat and corn enter heat-stressed grain fill.
Basis Watch
Colorado North Central corn basis firmed 5 cents on Friday on both old-crop and new-crop bids, the standout move in a generally quiet session. Old-crop strength carried through the western Corn Belt as well, with Nebraska Southeast, Missouri Central, and Missouri West corn each improving 5 cents at the top of their ranges. Kentucky Louisville old-crop corn firmed 4 cents. Elsewhere across Illinois, Iowa, and the Dakotas, old-crop corn moves ran 1 to 3 cents.
Soybean basis improved 5 cents at Kansas Southwest, across all three Missouri regions, and through North Dakota Central, East Central, and Northeast. Kentucky Louisville soybean basis weakened 3 cents, the lone decliner of size on the day.
Source: USDA AMS
Two-thirds of U.S. corn and soybean producers surveyed by Purdue in May said the Iran conflict would hurt their farm income in 2026 — a sentiment captured just before the June 14 cease-fire announcement.
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