Digging into Friday’s USDA Report comes up with the following items worth noting.
First, across the board stockpiles as of March 1st 2017 were up slightly from a year ago, and towards the high end of trade estimates, for all crops.
Corn had 8,616 Million bu (110% of last year’s level)
Soybeans had 1,735 Million bu (113% of last year’s level)
Wheat had 1,655 Million bu (121% of last year’s level).
Of course, all the talk is about spring planting these days, and the never changing discussion of whether or not this year will finally be the one the US farmer decides to switch to soybeans has resulted in a constant drip-drip-drip erosion of soybean pricing while corn has held steady.
The USDA report did not disappoint. Corn intentions are at 90 million acres (down 4 million from a year ago) and soybeans are up a whopping 6 million acres to 89.5 million acres, largely at the expense of wheat acres.
Will this come to pass? History has shown us that the US farmer will plant corn if the weather cooperates. If so – there is some opportunity with soybeans. That said, if we see a delayed spring the USDA’s guesses may come to reality. Time will tell.