date:Jul 23, 2013
Last week's heat wave across the central and southern United States stressed the developing corn and soybean crops, causing the U.S. Department of Agriculture to cut its ratings for both on Monday.
USDA rated 63 percent of the U.S. corn crop good to excellent, versus 66 percent a week ago. For soybeans, 64 percent of crop was rated good to excellent, down 1 percentage point from a week ago.
Analysts had been expecting a 1 to 2 percent decline in the ratings for both and corn and soybeans and w