Soybean Prices Find Strength After Friendly USDA Report

The November Crop Production and World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates reports gave a lift to grain prices.

How do you decide what precision and digital agricultural technologies to adopt?
How do you decide what precision and digital agricultural technologies to adopt?
(AgWeb)

The November Crop Production and World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates reports gave a lift to grain prices.

The soybean yield is the big story of the day, says Matt Bennett, commodity analyst with AgMarket.net.

Soybean production is forecast at 4.42 billion bushels, down 1% from the previous forecast but up 5% from last year. Based on conditions as of Nov. 1, yields are expected to average 51.2 bu. per harvested acre, down 0.3 bu. from the previous forecast but up 0.2 bu. from 2020.

The trade was expecting an increase to 51.9 bu. per acre.

“When you talk to producers throughout the Corn Belt, many are talking about record yields. So, I didn’t think it was a stretch to get a record crop,” Bennett says.

USDA reports the U.S. soybean outlook for 2021/22 includes lower production and exports and higher ending stocks. Lower yields in Indiana, Iowa, Ohio and Kansas account for most of the change in production.

Exports are reduced this month reflecting reduced global imports and lower-than-expected shipments through October. With use falling more than supply, soybean ending stocks increased 20 million bushels.

The U.S. season-average soybean price for 2020/21 is forecast at $12.10 per bushel, down 25¢.

For corn, USDA estimates production at 15.1 billion bushels, up less than 1% from the previous forecast and up 7% from 2020. Based on conditions as of Nov. 1, yields are expected to average 177 bu. per harvested acre, up 0.5 bu. from the previous forecast and up 5.6 bu. from last year.

The trade was expecting a corn yield of 176.9 bu. per acre.

On the supply and demand front, USDA’s corn outlook calls for greater production, increased corn used for ethanol and marginally lower ending stocks.

Corn used for ethanol was raised 50 million bushels. With use rising slightly more than supply, corn ending stocks are lowered 7 million bushels. The season-average corn price received by producers is unchanged at $5.45 per bushel.

“Ethanol demand went up 50 million bushels, but we were guessing 100 million,” Bennett says. “I think it will go up over 100 million given growing demand.”

AgWeb-Logo crop
Related Stories
Innovative research is revealing thousands of untapped genes that could help breeders develop hybrids with better stress tolerance, grain quality and performance across diverse farming systems.
The answers to which hybrids, products and practices paid off may already be in your fields. The trick is stopping long enough to find them, say David Hula and Randy Dowdy.
Farm Journal Field Agronomists say adjusting yield calculations for compromised plants could reveal 20 to 40 fewer bushels per acre than what farmers in parts of the Eastern Corn Belt currently expect.
Read Next
Planting soybeans months before wheat harvest sounds risky. But farmers Brian Tanner and Jason Mauck find it dries wet fields faster, cuts input costs and gives wheat a profitable place back in Corn Belt rotations.
Get News Daily
Get Market Alerts
Get News & Markets App