Agriculture Department officials left corn, soybeans, and wheat projections mostly unchanged in Tuesday’s World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report.
Corn ending stocks are estimated at 1.5 billion bushels, soybeans held at 120 million bushels, and wheat ending stocks are projected at 836 million bushels.
Allendale Commodity Broker Mike Lung said it’s not unusual for USDA to keep projections in line with February estimates.
“This March report typically is one where you see them kick the can (and) push it off to a later date because we have, at this point, so much season ahead of us until you get to that September time frame where these ending stocks really matter,” Lung told Agri-Pulse.
But when it comes to South America, USDA officials marginally raised Brazil’s soybean production from 133 million tons to 134 million tons compared to last month. Market traders were expecting that number to hold steady.
Lung said USDA raised Brazil soybean estimates due to the fact the USDA raised last year’s supply for South America by 2.5 million metric tons.
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But he feels Brazil’s crop size will dwindle because Brazilian growers started the season very dry.
Moving forward, grain traders will be looking at what producers intend to plant in USDA’s Prospective Plantings report out on March 31.
“That is the next big report, what are we going to be starting with acreage-wise for this new crop,” Lung said. As of right now, he said the average trade guess for corn-planted acres is 96 million acres and a range of 87-89 million acres for soybeans.
Lung noted a yield adjustment will likely be made for corn and soybeans in May, when forecasters have a better idea of the upcoming weather in June and its potential production impact.
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