By Ros Krasny
WASHINGTON, June 30 (Reuters) – Record, larger than expected U.S. soybean plantings for 2014 set the stage for a potential massive crop after the nation limps through to harvest on the tightest supplies in decades, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Monday.
Soybean futures were down sharply following the USDA report. They pressured canola futures lower as well, but the negative impact was lessened because of the crop damage in parts of the eastern Prairies from excess rain over the weekend.
Corn production should also be a bin-buster, slightly above the 2013 level, even through farmers trimmed acreage by four percent from a year ago to the lowest since 2010.
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USDA forecast soybean plantings up 11 percent on the year to a record high 84.8 million acres. Projected harvested acreage will be a record by more than 7.4 million acres.
That sets up a potential U.S. crop of 3.8 billion bushels, far above the previous high of 3.3 billion bu. and the current guess of 3.6 billion, using USDA’s June yield projection of 45.3 bu. per acre.
USDA forecast record soybean plantings in nine states. Planted acreage was increased or at least unchanged in all 31 states surveyed apart from Oklahoma.
“Planting conditions this spring were much improved compared with last year,” USDA said of the soybean crop.
USDA’s corn planting forecast of 91.6 million acres implies a crop of almost 13.9 billion bu., just below the record, using a projected yield of 165.3 bu. per acre.
Both major U.S. crops have a chance for above-trend yields in 2014, though, if weather conditions stay favourable.
Although plantings got off to a slow start, fieldwork caught up as spring progressed.
As of last week 74 percent of the corn crop and 72 percent of soybeans were in good to excellent condition.
The most recently weekly U.S. drought monitor also showed the benefit of recent rains in the heartland. Most major corn and soybean areas are now free of unusually dry conditions.
USDA surveyed over 71,000 farm operators during the first half of June for its annual planted acreage survey.
U.S. all-wheat acres were up less than one percent on the year. “Other spring” wheat plantings topped trade expectations while durum acreage was flat on the year.
USDA says durum area for 2014 1.47 million acres. Trade expected 1.79 mln
Cotton plantings are on the rise, up nine percent on the year to 11.4 million acres, slightly above USDA’s previous forecast.
QUARTERLY CORN USAGE JUMPS
U.S. corn stocks as of June 1 were 3.85 billion bu., up 39 percent from a year ago, and above the trade guess of 3.72 billion.
Projected corn usage for the March-May period was 3.15 billion bushels, up 20 percent from a year ago, USDA said.
June 1 soybean stocks, at 405 million bushels, were above the average trade guess of 378 million. Quarterly usage for March-May was up 4 percent on the year.
USDA’s June 1 wheat stocks figure will also become 2013/14 ending stocks, and at 590 million bushels was close to its current forecast of 593 million. March-May wheat disappearance slipped 10 percent on the year.
