Corn and soybean growers will harvest smaller crops than projected by the government, according to a private survey of 1,300 growers, but that will mean little relief for depressed market prices. “There’s a lot of headwinds” from other sectors of the economy, said Bryce Knorr of Farm Futures during a webcast by the University of Arkansas. Knorr said the grower survey by Farm Futures indicated a soybean crop of 3.768 billion bushels, 3-percent less than a USDA projection, and a corn crop of 13.366 billion bushels, 1.2 percent below USDA’s July projection. They still would be the second-largest soybean crop and third-largest corn crop ever.
Smaller crops would reduce U.S. corn and soybean stockpiles. Knorr said the corn inventory at the end of the 2015/16 marketing year could drop to 1.4 billion bushels, 12-percent less than the USDA has projected, and soybean stocks could be 335 million bushels, about 20-percent smaller.
Traders also expect the USDA to lower its figures for corn and soybeans in the upcoming crop report on Aug. 12, according to a Bloomberg survey. On average, traders expect a corn crop of 13.332 billion bushels with a carry-over of 1.449 billion bushels and a soybean crop of 3.742 billion bushels with a carry-over of 322 million bushels.