WASHINGTON, Sept 30 (Reuters) – U.S. stockpiles of corn and soybeans are slightly smaller than forecast but supplies were still ample heading into what is expected to be a bumper harvest for both commodities, government data released on Wednesday showed.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture in its quarterly grain stocks report said that U.S. corn stocks held in all positions as of Sept. 1 were 1.731 billion bushels, the biggest in nine years.
Soybean stocks stood at 191 million bu., a four-year high.
That compared with market expectations of 1.739 billion bu. for corn and 205 million bu. for soybeans, according to the average of estimates given in a Reuters poll. A year ago, soybean stocks were 92 million bu. and corn stocks were 1.232 billion bu.
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USDA also lowered its estimate of the soybean crop harvested in 2014 to 3.927 billion bu. from 3.969 billion bu. The government cited an analysis of the stocks figure, exports and crushings for the revision. It also lowered the average yield by 0.3 bu. per acre to 47.5.
Plentiful supplies, coupled with burgeoning harvest expectations, have weighed on corn and soybean prices for months. Soybean futures dropped to 6-1/2-year lows in recent weeks on big yield reports from early harvested fields, while corn has fallen 12.5 percent from its summer peak.
USDA also reported wheat stocks of 2.089 billion bu. as of Sept. 1, up from 1.907 billion bu. a year earlier. Analysts, on average, had expected wheat stocks of 2.149 billion bu.
USDA trimmed its outlook for the 2015-16 U.S. wheat crop to 2.052 billion bu. from 2.136 billion, below analysts’ forecasts, after lowering its forecast for the harvest of all types of wheat except durum.
The winter wheat crop was seen at 1.370 billion bu., 68 million bu. lower than the government’s August forecast and 60 million bu. lower than market forecasts.
