Grain > Commentary > 5-31-2023

5/31/2023

May 31, 2023

It feels like all grains have taken a beating over the last month, but really it is just the Soybeans that took a beating.  July corn futures were actually up 9 cents on the month.  December corn futures are slightly lower down 6 cents.  The August bean futures were down $1.44 and the November futures were down $1.17.  Basis seems to be backing off a touch as of late on both corn and beans as processors switch to the August and September futures and deal with the inverse.  We have been talking about dangerous that inverse is for a long time and it has only gotten worse.  Be careful if you have old crop left at home because there is never a good ending to an inverse.  The first crop ratings were out last night and they came up with 69% good to excellent.  The average trade guess was 71%, but the market didn't react much.  It feels like we are in the middle of a weather market, but May is just too early for a significant weather trade.      

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3/31/2025
Mar 31, 2025
USDA reported corn planting acres at 95.326 million acres of corn, which would be up a little more than 5% from 2024's final number and the second highest March figure of the last ten years behind only 2020's estimate of 96.99 mil acres.  US corn stocks as of March 1st were seen at 81.51 billion bushels, which was exactly what the trade had expected and was down just over 2% from March 1 of 2024.  USDA said farmers intended to plant 83.495 million acres of soybeans, which would be down about 4% from last year and was just a hair smaller than what the trade was looking for.  March 1 soybean stocks were pegged at 1.91 billion bu's, which again was nearly exactly as the trade had expected, and was up 3.5% compared to March 1, 2024.
3/11/2025
Mar 11, 2025
The monthly USDA WASDE report was today and it was about as boring as it can get.  The USDA took the month off leaving corn and beans carryouts unchanged.  Corn remains at 1.540 billion bushels and beans at 380 million bushels.  World ending stocks were slightly lowered on both corn and beans.  World corn was pegged at 288.94 million tonnes vs 290.3 million tonnes previously.  World beans were pegged at 121.4 million tonnes vs 124.3 million tonnes previously.  All of the South American crop production estimates were also left unchanged.  
8/30/2024
Aug 30, 2024
Corn picks up 10 cents and soybeans improve just over 25 cents on the week to go into the holiday weekend on a positive note.  Soybean export sales have picked up the pace in a big way.  At the end of last week, sales...