AG Squawk AM 8/19/2026 with Jed Sidwell | When Weather, Yields, and Geopolitics Collide

We run through a fast market and news brief, from live grain quotes to Midwest flooding that keeps pushing crop worries higher. We also flag what the Pro Farmer Crop Tour is suggesting about corn yields, preview the cattle on feed backdrop, and close with geopolitics plus today’s key economic reports. 
• Live check on corn, soybeans, and Chicago wheat levels 
• Flood watches across central Illinois and Indiana, with saturated soils and damaged roads 
• Crop condition ratings slipping and what that signals for corn yield expectations 
• Pro Farmer Crop Tour takeaways and why it can challenge USDA state estimates 
• Cattle on feed report ahead amid plant issues, border shifts, and screw worm headlines 
• UAE suspends trade with Iran, Strait of Hormuz shipping disruption, and market risk 
• Economic calendar scan including EIA energy stocks and FOMC minutes 
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Transcript

Welcome And Today’s Lineup

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Good morning and welcome to AgSquawk AM. Jed Sidwell here, live from Joliet, Illinois. I'm with Ag Bull Media. We're a financial channel that loves agriculture. Today we're going to talk a bit about crop progress and the Pro Farmer Crop Tour as they travel throughout the Midwest. We have a cattle on feed report coming up, and the UAE is having some tensions with Iran. We'll get to all of that here in a bit.

Live Futures Market Snapshot

SPEAKER_00 1:08

In the back months, they were down just a bit more at 80 and 73 cents. As I quote the market here live with my quotes from Plus 500, we use plus 500 T4 trading software here at Ag Bull. We're big fans of plus 500 and everything that they do for us. As we look at corn September contract is at 466 set beans or at 1212 even, and Chicago wheat is at 665.

Midwest Flooding And Travel Impacts

SPEAKER_00 1:40

On to our weather discussion for today. Fresh flood watches have gone up for central Illinois into central Indiana where saturated soils and elevated rivers continue to be a problem. I drove back and forth to Springfield, Illinois a lot this weekend for the Illinois State Fair, and that was before we had gotten some more of these rains here at the beginning of the week. And man, there were parts of the interstate or highway systems that were, you know, one lane because the other lane had damage because of heaving, because of the all of the rain that we had gotten. It's even worse as you go into Indiana and even into Ohio. Hopefully, for the people that have been underwater and got evacuated out of their houses, they're doing okay.

Crop Ratings And Tour Yield Clues

SPEAKER_00 2:32

On to the grain market discussion for today, and this chart kind of caught my eye. I thought it kind of painted a pretty good picture of the total precipitation that we have just seen and the sheer mass of it through the northern corn belt, that dark blue area there. The national corn and soybean ratings each fell another point this week with good to excellent corn now 11 point behind last year. And one analyst's national yield estimate is down to like 177.8 bushels an acre. The Pro Farmers Crop Tour first day suggested the USDA may be too high on Ohio's 95 bushels an acre for corn yield. We'll see. You know, a crop tour is a good way to actually get some general reporting, but they can only see so much in their time as they go through state to state. There's only so many um fields that they can look at.

Cattle On Feed Preview And Industry Turmoil

SPEAKER_00 3:27

Cattle thoughts for today. I figured I'd pop this on. I'm gonna keep it kind of brief because today I'm gonna be a day late recording Mike Sands on our Fat Tuesday show. This one is going to stay over there on the premium side. And man, this cattle on feed report coming, this kind of weird turmoil that we've been in with the cattle industry, with the plant close, the Mexican border reopening, screw worms popping back in some headlines again. I highly encourage you to go over and subscribe to our premium site. It's $25 a month or $250 annually. So that way you can make sure and get Fat Tuesday every week or before the bell every day. You can get as much Mike Sands as you want. Before the Bell is a five-minute news snippet of what he's seeing in the cattle market

UAE Iran Tensions And Shipping Risks

SPEAKER_00 4:15

every day. On to this headline that caught my eye on CNBC this morning. The UAE has suspended trade with Iran after reporting two ballistic missiles were launched from the country towards its territorial waters. Trump confirmed Tuesday that talks with Tehran have been falling apart and keeping the standoff in a volatile deadlock. Shipping through the Strait of Hormose has remained at a really big deficit and low compared compared to normal. Trump's claim that it has reopened with an attack on the cargo vessel killing with this week has kind of been highly debated there.

Key Economic Reports To Watch

SPEAKER_00 4:54

On the economic calendar for today, the NBA mortgage applications comes out, already came out at 6 a.m. The EIA energy stocks comes out at 9.30. The FOMC meeting minutes come out at 1 right there towards the close.

Social Highlights And Sign Off

SPEAKER_00 5:09

Well, that's all I have for you today. Make sure and pay attention to our social media. We do a pretty good job of putting up some TikToks every single day. And uh we try and grab the highlights from every show. So if you're like, hmm, you know, my time's pretty limited. I only have maybe one or two car drives where I can maybe listen to one Ag Bull show. Go and take a sampling from our TikTok. If there's one that catches your eye, go and find it on any platform. I highly recommend it. I'm sure you won't be disappointed. Well, thank you for watching and thank you for listening. I'm Jed Sidwell with AgBull Media. Catch me this afternoon with Mr. Mike Sands as we do our Fat Tuesday show. We're a financial channel that absolutely loves agriculture. I'll talk to you tomorrow.