Drought continues to expand across the Midwest despite wet weather patterns.

By David Geiger | Published on November 21, 2025

1. Grain Markets Weaker on Friday

At 6:30 a.m. CT, March corn was down 1½¢ at $4.36 per bushel.

January soybeans were down 3¾¢ at $11.18¾ per bushel. January soy meal was unchanged at $317.60 a short ton, and January soy oil fell 0.71¢ to 50.27¢ a pound.

March wheat markets were in the red in the early morning. CBOT wheat was down 3¾¢ at $5.37 per bushel. KC wheat was 3¼¢ weaker at $5.20½ per bushel. Minneapolis wheat decreased 7½¢ at $5.60¼ per bushel.

“News this week has mostly favored the grain bulls, but the price action was controlled by the bears after the rally Monday.” said Bob Linneman, commodities broker of Kluis Commodity Advisors. “Many traders believe we are seeing further ‘buy the rumor, sell the fact’ position-squaring. Global stock markets have been hit hard over the past two weeks and are now testing, or are just below, key moving average support lines.”

2. Drought Continues Expansion Across the Midwest

Drought continued to grow in the Midwest across a nine-state region, including Iowa and Illinois, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

About 68.93% of the area, which also includes Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky, suffered from drought conditions in the seven days that ended on Nov. 18, the monitor said.

Drought levels increased 5.3% over the week before, which was at 63.63%. The monitor said that is significantly higher than three months ago, when drought conditions were just at 21.18%.

About 71% of Iowa was under drought conditions, an increase of 4% from the week before and well ahead of the 0% drought from three months ago.

Illinois drought conditions were unchanged from the week before at 86.34%, the Drought Monitor said.

Wisconsin saw much more drought, about a 17% increase, at 95.73%. Drought expanded slightly in Missouri at 93.26% of the state. Ohio also saw a slight increase of about 3% week-over-week. 

Minnesota drought conditions increased 12% to 74.92%. Indiana and Michigan saw little to no change, the monitor said. 

3. Wet Pattern Continues with Above Average Temperatures Expected

A low pressure system early Friday morning continues to support heavy rain and thunderstorms in the central Plains according to the National Weather Service’s (NWS) Weather Prediction Center.

This comes from an active southern stream of the upper jet supporting a wet pattern from Southern California into the central and southern Plains as well as the mid-Mississippi Valley, Ohio Valley, and Mid-Atlantic.

The NWS said, “While the southern stream remains active over the next few days, the northern stream will be characterized by mostly west to east flow at the mid to upper levels. This will keep arctic air absent from the Lower 48 over the next few days.”

This means most of the country will have above average temperatures late this week into the weekend, according to the NWS, and record warmth will continue for areas along the Gulf Coast, lower Mississippi Valley, and Southeast.

ARTICLE: Successful Farming, November 21, 2025