According to Monday’s Crop Progress report, 76% of the US corn crop had reached the dough stage as of August 16, while 29% was dented and 4% was mature. Crop conditions declined by 1% this week, with 60% of the crop rated good to excellent. The Brugler500 index fell 3 points to 353.

Monday morning’s Export Inspections report showed US corn shipments of 1.91 MMT (75.23 million bushels) for the week ending August 13. This was 8.55% higher than the previous week and 81.71% above the same week last year. Mexico was the largest destination at 699,695 MT, followed by Japan at 499,733 MT and Colombia at 141,496 MT. Total corn exports for the current marketing year have reached 80.95 MMT (3.186 billion bushels), which is 26.05% ahead of the same period last year, with just over two weeks remaining in the marketing year.

The ProFarmer Crop Tour begins this week, with market participants closely watching the yield results from the field survey. Today’s tour will cover South Dakota and Ohio, along with parts of Indiana and Nebraska.

AgRural estimates that Brazil’s second corn crop is 85% harvested, still behind the 94% pace seen at the same time last year.