News

Lower corn and soybean stocks were a surprise

The corn and soybean numbers in USDA’s quarterly stocks report were lower than the trade was expecting.

Market analyst Jeff Peterson with Nebraska-based Heartland Farm Partners says one number that grabbed his attention was off-farm storage of corn.

“The off-farm came in at about 1.24 billion bushels—and when you take a look at that and you compare back to where that would have been last year, at 1.4 billion,” Peterson says. “So we ended up having less than a year ago, and that’s what has kind of helped us keep some of these basis levels firm.”

Peterson says the 50 million bushel reduction in soybean stocks was also significant, especially with some early soybean yields coming in below expectations.

“That’s an important one because we’re already kind of tightening up these bean stocks already. That makes the yield numbers even more important when they come out in the next WASDE report.”

That report comes out on October 9^th.