Crop Tour Offers Glimpse Of Storm Damage In Iowa

A storm that ripped through corn fields in America’s top growing state sent prices rallying. Whether gains will hold could depend on what scouts find at the Midwest crop tour starting Monday.

Straight-line winds known as derecho hit Iowa last week, with more than half of the state’s corn acres located in counties in the storm’s path, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency.

That combined with data showing that farmers had left more fields fallow than expected to send corn futures surging to a five-week high on Monday.

The scope of the damage is still unknown, but crop scouts counting corn kernels and soybean pods during a four-day annual tour of the Midwest crop belt should shed some light.