It’s also a record for average bushels per acre at 50.6 and acres harvested at 83 million. That exceeded all the estimates in a Bloomberg survey and will push production to an all-time high.
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Driven by recent strong demand for U.S. exports, soybeans hit a two-week high last week, but the run-up to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) monthly supply and demand report has turned attention back to the upcoming harvest, expected to be the biggest ever.
The “USDA got a lot more aggressive on yield than what the trade was expecting”, Ted Seifried, chief market strategist at Zaner Group LLC in Chicago, said in a telephone interview.
“Markets are still under pressure in cereals in a context of bumper supplies and a lack of enthusiasm from the buying side, despite historically low prices”, consultancy Agritel said in a note.
Corn and soybeans managed to move higher as well with traders short-covering positions before the long Labor Day weekend.
Corn production and yield were both trimmed from the government’s August outlook but were pegged near the high end of analysts’ forecasts and USDA reiterated its expectation for a record harvest of the yellow grain.
The big crop could leave farmers and grain elevators squeezed on space to store excess supplies.
In its World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report, the U.S.D.A. forecast the carryover of corn on September 1, 2017, at 2,384 million bus, down 25 million bus from its August forecast and compared with 1,716 million bus on September 1, 2016.
Corn numbers were also bearish.
The estimated corn crop was reduced to 15.1 billion bushels as compared to last month’s estimate of 15.2 billion.
The most active corn futures contract fell 0.4 percent to $3.39-3/4 a bushel.
Wheat was the only one of the big three US crop futures to hold gains after the USDA report. The stockpiles are still forecast to rise to a record.
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