According to USDA, corn silking, dough & dent figures and soybean blooming & pod setting figures remained significantly below previous year levels through the second week of August. The current corn and soybean crops identified to be in good or excellent condition remained unchanged from the previous week but each finished slightly above analyst expectations. Corn: Corn silking as of the week ending Aug 11^th was 90% complete, finishing behind last year’s pace of 96% and the five year average pace of 97%. Corn silking progress finished at a ten year seasonal low figure. Corn dough as of the week ending Aug 11^th was 39% percent complete, finishing behind last year’s pace of 71% and the five year average pace of 61%. Corn dough progress finished at a six year seasonal low figure. Corn dent as of the week ending Aug 11^th was seven percent complete, finishing behind last year’s pace of 24% and the five year average pace of 16%. Corn dent progress finished at a six year seasonal low figure. 57% of the current corn crop was identified to be in good or excellent condition as of the week ending Aug 11^th, unchanged from the previous week. The current corn crop identified to be in good or excellent condition finished below last year’s figure of 70% but was slightly above analyst expectations of 56%. 13% of the current corn crop was identified as very poor or poor, also unchanged from the previous week but finishing three percent above last year’s figure. The percentage of the current corn crop identified to be in good or excellent remained at a seven year seasonal low level for the week ending Aug 11^th while the percentage of the current corn crop identified to be in poor or very poor condition finished at the highest level experienced throughout the past seven years. Soybeans: Soybean blooming progress as of the week ending Aug 11^th was 82% complete, finishing behind last year’s pace of 95% and the five year average pace of 93%. Soybean blooming progress finished tied for the lowest seasonal pace experienced throughout the past 29 years. Soybean pod setting as of the week ending Aug 11^th was 54% complete, finishing behind last year’s pace of 83% and the five year average pace of 76%. Soybean pod setting progress finished at a 23 year seasonal low figure. 54% of the current soybean crop was identified to be in good or excellent condition as of the week ending Aug 11^th, unchanged from the previous week but down one percent within the ‘excellent’ category. The current soybean crop identified to be in good or excellent condition finished below last year’s figure of 66% but was slightly above analyst expectations of 53%. 13% of the current soybean crop was identified as very poor or poor, also unchanged from the previous week but finishing three percent above last year’s figure. The percentage of the current soybean crop identified to be in good or excellent remained at a seven year seasonal low level for the week ending Aug 11^th while the percentage of the current soybean crop identified to be in poor or very poor condition finished at the highest level experienced throughout the past seven years.