Department says U.S. farmers planted more corn than first thought, while the soybean seeding estimate takes a big hit
Analysts are still recovering from a jaw-dropping U.S. Department of Agriculture June acreage report.
“Wow, we picked up a lot of corn acres and lost a ton of soybean acres,” Arlan Suderman, chief commodities economist with StoneX, said in a webinar.
The USDA estimates that U.S. farmers planted 94.1 million acres of corn, up 2.1 million acres from the March planting intentions report.
Soybean area is pegged at 83.5 million acres, down four million acres from the March report.
Both numbers were well off the trade’s pre-report expectations of 91.85 million acres of corn and 87.67 million acres of soybeans.
“We did not see this coming,” said Suderman.
Reuters columnist Karen Braun was also taken aback.
“Immediate report reaction: ummm, what?” she tweeted.
“Honestly I can’t immediately explain this, I’m confused about what just happened. Numbers were so surprising that I’m half waiting for USDA to come out with a correction?”
The USDA’s corn number was higher than the highest trade estimate of 93 million acres and its soybean number was well below the lowest trade estimate of 87 million acres.
“You’d think if we’re going to lose four million acres of soybeans, we would see significant signs of that,” said Suderman.
“We did not.”
The November soybean futures contract jumped US$74.25 per tonne on June 30, the day the report was released, while the December corn futures contract fell $33.75.
Suderman is skeptical of the USDA’s findings. It doesn’t make sense to him that total combined corn and soybean acres dropped.
Source: producer.com
Photo Credit: pexels-energepiccom
Categories: North Dakota, Government & Policy