USDA states old crop corn ending stocks were below the average pre-report estimate, while soybeans were larger than expected. Quarterly wheat stocks were also below what analysts were anticipating.
2011/12 corn ending stocks came out at an eight year low of 988 million bushels. That’s down 12% on the year and well below the average pre-report estimate of 1.126 billion bushels, and an even bigger surprise considering harvest was reportedly 10% complete at the end of August. On a quarter by quarter basis, that’s a disappearance of 2.16 billion bushels, compared to 2.54 billion from June to August 2011. On farm stocks were 314 million bushels, a slight year to year decrease, while off farm supplies dropped 17% to 675 million bushels.
2011/12 soybean ending stocks were reported at 169 million bushels, 21% less than this time last year, but above the average pre-report guess of 132 million bushels. USDA revised the 2011 production total to 3.09 billion bushels, an increase of 37.5 million from the prior estimate, with yield at 41.9 bushels per acre, up four tenths of a bushel. The planted acreage figure was raised 70,000 acres and harvested area was increased 140,000 to 73.8 million acres. On farm soybean supplies were 38.3 million bushels and off farm stocks were 131 million bushels, both down 21% from a year ago. Fourth quarter disappearance was 498 million bushels, up 23% from the last quarter of the 2010/11 marketing year.
Quarterly wheat stocks were 2.1 billion bushels, 2% less than last year, and on average, analysts were expecting a year to year increase of 134 million bushels. The June to August disappearance was 908 million bushels, a 27% rise from the first quarter of 2011/12. On farm wheat stocks were 573 million bushels, down 9% on the year, and off farm supplies were 1.53 billion bushels, up 1% from a year ago.
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