Yesterday, the USDA released its weekly crop progress report. The corn and soybean crop conditions were virtually unchanged from last week’s report, while both crops continue to mature at an accelerated pace. The USDA estimated 72% of the corn crop is in good or excellent condition, while 9% is in poor or very poor condition, which was unchanged from last week. During this week in 2009, 70% of the crop was in good or excellent condition and 8% was in poor or very poor condition. This week, 84% of the corn crop is silking, according to USDA estimates; while 48% was last week and 52% this week in 2009. The 5-year historical average is that only 70% of the crop silking by the third week of July.

By Lara Crigger

As Brad Zigler discussed Thursday, agricultural commodities have outshone many other hard assets over the past quarter, including base metals and energy. But can the good times last?

In case you haven't noticed, agricultural products, grains in particular, have been putting on an impressive rally. Take a look at this chart of the Dow Jones - UBS Grains Index:

If you're looking for a way to participate in this rally, I have the following list of ETFs courtesy of ETFdb.com: