Market News & Headlines >> USDA Report Slams the Market

USDA made waves this morning with the release of its 2014 acreage report and the June 1 grain stocks report, indicating potential for monster corn and soybean crops. 

Despite worries last week that corn plantings might fall short,  USDA reported that 91.6 million acres of corn were planted this season, right at industry expectations.  Soybeans were even stronger at a record 84.8 million planted acres, exceeding expectations by nearly two million acres.  Big numbers from this report make the arguments of those projecting record or near-record harvests of these two crops much more convincing.

Wheat plantings, at 56.5 million acres, were also a bit higher than expectations, which averaged  55.8 million.  Of that land, winter wheat accounted for 42.3 million; Durum, 1.5 million, and 12.7 million were dedicated to other spring wheat.

About a million more acres of cotton were planted than the USDA predicted in March, at 11.1 million acres. 

Sorghum planted acreage is 7.5 million, also exceeding its expectations of 6.7 million.  Barley, oats, and rice did not deviate much from projections.  

There were no major surprises in the grain stocks report today, but the numbers there also pointed toward large supplies of corn and soybeans.  Corn stocks came in toward the higher end of expectations at 3.85 bil. bu., up 39% from the year before.  Soybeans were at 405 mil. bu., down 7% from the year before, but exceeding average expectations of 378 mil. bu. 

Old-crop all wheat stands at 590 mil. bu.  The on-farm stocks of wheat were estimated at 97.0 mil. bu., down 19% on the year.  Old-crop Durum wheat stocks totaled 21.5 mil. bu., down 7% from the year prior.