Plus, could grain buyers be changing purchasing patterns?
If you’re anything like me, you spent the past few days icing your neck after the whiplash from the March 31 USDA reports.
Trade estimates largely missed the mark on Wednesday’s USDA 2021 Prospective Plantings report. Lower acreage estimates for 2021 corn and soybean production sent futures contracts soaring up to each commodity’s respective daily limits - $0.25/bushel for corn and $0.70/bushel for soybeans on Wednesday, before easing slightly in Friday’s trading session.
USDA expects farmers will plant 91.1 million acres of corn, 87.6 million acres of soybeans, and 46.4 million acres of wheat. Of that total, USDA expects an 8.8% increase in winter wheat acreage with 2021 sowings at 33.1 million acres while spring wheat acreage will fall 4.2% from 2020 at the hands of higher corn and soybean profits to 11.7 million acres. That’s a principal crop acreage increase of 2% from 2020.