soybean crop

The government will raise its estimates of the record-setting corn and soybean crops on Friday, according to two surveys of analysts ahead of the monthly crop report and the companion WASDE report on world crops.

Analysts look for USDA to forecast the first-ever 4 billion-bushel U.S. soybean crop on Friday, along with possibly boosting the size of the record-setting corn crop.

The numbers may change when USDA issues its September crop report on Thursday but the story remains the same: U.S. farmers will reap their largest corn and soybean crops ever this fall. The gargantuan harvests will result in the biggest surpluses in several years and bring markedly lower farm-gate prices that end an eight-year run of historically high crop prices.

Private consultants expect the U.S. corn and soybean crops will be larger than estimated by the government. USDA will update its forecasts on Sept 11. Three consultancies - INTL FCStone, Lanworth and Allendale - release assessments this week. Lanworth was the only one to lower its estimate of the corn crop, to 14.646 billion bushels, but that is higher than the other two forecasts and 4 percent larger than USDA's estimate of 14.032 billion bushels based on Aug 1 conditions, said AgriMoney.

Heading into the final weeks of the growing season, U.S. corn and soybeans were in extraordinary condition, said USDA. Its weekly Crop Progress report said 74 percent of corn was in good or excellent condition, up 1 point from the previous week, and 72 percent of soybeans were good or excellent, up 2 points. Eight percent of corn was mature, half the usual figure for the final days of August. U.S. corn and soybean harvests are forecast to set records this fall.

It's sorghum, one of the major grain crops of the world yet eclipsed in the United States by the expanding range of corn and soybeans. In Africa and parts of Asia, sorghum is a food crop but in the U.S. market, it is primarily used in livestock rations and as an ethanol feedstock, says the Whole Grains Council. It's gaining some recognition as a gluten-free grain that can substitute for wheat flour in many recipes - muffins, pizza, cakes and casseroles are examples.

Grocery shoppers will pay record-level prices for beef and pork through 2015, says a University of Missouri think tank.

U.S. farmers will harvest their biggest corn and soybean crops ever - 14.093 billion bushels of corn and 3.812 billion bushels of soybeans, says Pro Farmer after a first-hand look at crops in the seven leading states.

The U.S. soybean crop could be as much as 6 percent smaller than now forecast if yields drop slightly or if plantings turn out to be smaller than reported, say projections presented at a Kansas State University risk-management conference.

Analysts are chewing over the arcane Crop Acreage Data page posted by USDA in hopes of a clearer picture of this fall's corn and soybean harvests.

The Russian ban on food and ag products from Western nations including the United States is likely to mean more business for Brazil, says Reuters.

Commodity prices will tumble if U.S. farmers harvest record corn and soybean crops this fall, says Farm Futures.

The U.S. corn and soybean crops are in phenomenally good shape for the first week of August, said the weekly Crop Progress report, despite dry July weather in the western Corn Belt.

U.S. farmers will harvest the first 14-billion-bushel corn crop this fall, breaking the record for corn production by half-a-billion bushels, say estimates from two major companies according to Reuters.

Analysts expect record U.S. corn and soybean yields this fall that will be 3.5 percent higher than the marks set five years ago, according to a straw poll by Reuters. On average, the 20 analysts pegged the corn yield at 170.5 bushels an acre and soybeans at 45.6 bushels an acre, compared to the record 164.7 for corn and 44.0 for soybeans. The analysts figures are higher than USDA's projections of record-setting crops. USDA will make its first field-based estimate of the crops on Aug 12.

U.S. soybean yields could exceed 46 bushels an acre for the first time this year, according to separate forecasts. The record, set in 2009, is 44 bushels. Based on current conditions, Commodity Weather Group said yields would average 46.1 bushels an acre, which would mean a record crop of 3.88 billion bushels, said Farm Futures.

In its first formal forecast of the 2014/15 soybean crop, the International Grains Council forecast a record harvest, up 6 percent from the previous season, and a 24 percent jump in carryover stocks.

Farmers are expected to plant an estimated 86.5 million acres of soybeans this year, up 3 percent from last year, and dial back their corn acreage by 5 percent and their wheat acreage by 4 percent, according to the USDA’s annual Prospective Plantings report, released Thursday.