As temperatures soar across the mid-western States of the US, there is potential for damage to maize and soya crops.

Reuters report that extreme heat and dryness are hurting the U.S. corn crop at its crucial pollination phase, a situation weather forecasters expect to continue this week, with only small amounts of rain seen for drought-plagued Indiana and Ohio.

Golman Sachs warned that continued hot weather in August could reduce yields below its estimate of 154 bushels an acre, already well below the U.S. Department of Agriculture's forecast of 158.7 a bushel per acre, and so push prices even higher.

CNN report that the intense early-summer weather has baked areas from Missouri to New York to Georgia with record-breaking heat and unleashed fierce storms that knocked out power to millions over the weekend. At least 16 people were killed from the series of storms.

Emergencies were declared in Maryland, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C., on Saturday because of damage from storms that unleashed hurricane-force winds across and a 500-mile (800-km) stretch of the mid-Atlantic region.

LIFFE prices for wheat continued to rise today on the back of news from the US and concerns that the continued wet weather in the UK during the grain filling period will result in lower yields. The BBC weather forecast for the rest of July is for continung unsettled conditions.

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