July 19 (Bloomberg) -- Soybean futures rose to a record and corn extended the biggest monthly rally since 1988 as the worst drought in more than 50 years threatens crops in the U.S., the world’s biggest grower. Severe to exceptional drought expanded to 48 percent of the Midwest as of July 17 from 33 percent a week earlier, the government said today. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has declared almost 1,300 counties in 29 states as natural-disaster areas. Fields are in the worst condition since 1988, when drought cut corn output 31 percent and soybeans by 20 percent. “Soybeans are going downhill fast, and there are few signs for relief,” Gregg Hunt, a market analyst at Archer Financial Services Inc. in Chicago, said in a telephone interview. “Expanding drought will lead very tight U.S. supplies and higher prices to slow demand.”
