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Good Morning farm country. Davis Michaelsen here with your morning update for Wednesday, February 10. From Pro Farmer’s First Thing Today, these are some of the stories we are watching this morning:
Corn futures are near session lows and down 3 to 8 cents, with old-crop leading losses after USDA’s cut to corn carryover fell well short of expectations. Soybean futures are forging new lows and down 11 to 15 cents. Winter wheat futures are 7 to 8 cents lower, while spring wheat is posting losses of 3 to 4 cents. The U.S. dollar index is just above unchanged, with crude oil futures again working higher.
In its monthly balance sheet update yesterday, USDA hiked its 2020-21 Chinese corn import projection by 6.5 MMT to a record-high 24 MMT, a move many in the industry say was long overdue based on export commitments and shipments already on the books. But USDA only raised Chinese corn use by 2 MMT, shifting the remaining 4.5 MMT into ending stocks and pushing global carryover higher than expected.
India exported 336,390 MT of soymeal during January amid a surge in global prices to a 6 1/2-year high. That marked a 484% jump from year-ago levels, fueled by buying from France, Germany Indonesia and Bangladesh, reports the Soybean Processors Association of India.
The Federal Reserve’s Main Street Lending Program, which was designed to provide emergency support to midsize U.S. companies during the pandemic, lent out a total $17.5 billion — or just 3% of its potential capacity — according to data released yesterday by the central bank.
Senate Ag Ranking Member John Boozman (R-Ark.) did not mince words over the Biden administration’s plans regarding climate change. He reiterated USDA lacks the legislative authority to use the Commodity Credit Corp. (CCC) as a carbon bank and challenged the department to produce a legal analysis.
People may need to get vaccinated against Covid-19 annually over the next several years, Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky told CNBC, meaning the jabs could become like seasonal flu shots. Other public health officials and infectious disease experts have said there is a high likelihood that Covid-19 will become an endemic disease, meaning it will always be present in the population.
The Biden administration is still considering a rule that would require negative Covid-19 test results for domestic air travel, according to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and officials with the U.S. CDC.
Hong Kong ordered the culling of 3,000 pigs after African swine fever was discovered on a farm in the rural Yuen Long area near its border with China. Several new strains of ASF have been circulating in China.
Boxed beef values were mixed Tuesday. So far, there has just been a light cash cattle market test at $114 in Kansas and Texas, in line with action the week prior.
Lean hog futures saw some profit-taking move in yesterday, but futures were able to muster a high-range close with prices narrowly mixed. Cash hog bids surged $3.48 on Tuesday, with slaughter up from week- and year-ago levels.
