WASHINGTON, Oct 9 (Reuters) – The U.S. government trimmed its forecast for this year’s domestic corn and soybean harvests on Friday, although supplies will still be plentiful, after reviewing its outlook for harvested acreage.
The new crop outlooks were largely in line with market expectations.
The government also lowered its outlook of U.S. end stocks for the 2015-16 crop year for corn, soybeans and wheat, but the cuts were smaller than market forecasts.
USDA pegged corn ending stocks at 1.561 billion bushels, soybean ending stocks at 425 million bu. and wheat ending stocks at 861 million bu..
The USDA in its monthly supply and demand report pegged U.S. corn production at 13.555 billion bu., based on an average yield of 168 bu. per acre.
USDA pegged soy production at 3.888 billion bu. and an average yield of 47.2 bu per acre.
That compares with the government’s September forecast of a corn crop of 13.585 billion bu. and a soybean crop of 3.935 billion bu.
If realized, soybean production and yield would be the second biggest on record. Corn harvest would be the third biggest ever and corn yield would be the second biggest on record.
Analysts were expecting corn production of 13.504 billion bu. and an average yield of 167.1 bu. per acre, based on the average of estimates in a Reuters survey of analysts. Analysts were expecting soy production of 3.908 billion bu. and a yield of 47.2 bu. per acre.
USDA said harvested corn acreage would be 80.664 million, down from its September outlook of 81.101 million. Harvested soybean acreage was seen at 82.429 million, down from its view of 83.549 million issued in September.
Analysts, on average had been expecting harvested corn acreage of 80.826 million and harvested soybean acreage of 82.914 million.
The October report was the first of the year to incorporate acreage data from USDA’s Farm Service Agency, which requires farmers participating in crop insurance programs to submit an annual report regarding all cropland use on their farms.
