Crop prices soar on bullish USDA report

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Published: March 30, 2012

,

Canola and all other crops soared Friday morning on support from a USDA report that was particularly bullish for oilseeds.

At 11:20 am May soybeans are up 55.5 cents at $14.11 per bushel.

November soybeans up 57.25 cents at $13.62.

May corn is up 40 cents at $6.44 per bushel.

Dec. corn up 16.5 cents at $5.4075.

In Minneapolis, May wheat is up 50.75 cents at $8.395.

December wheat is up 49.5 cents at $8.2325.

ICE Canada May canola is up $15.90 per tonne at $619.20.

November is up $16.30 at  $572.30.

Read Also

Photo: Geralyn Wichers

U.S. livestock: Cattle futures fall back ahead of cattle on feed report

Chicago live and feeder cattle futures fell back on Thursday ahead of Friday’s cattle on feed report. Hogs were mixed.

The report was bullish for old crop corn but less so for new crop corn.

It looks like a lot land in the Dakotas will come out of wheat and into corn and soybeans.

But overall, USDA pegged soybean acreage at just 73.902 million acres, down one percent from last year.

The trade, as polled by Reuters, had expected 75.393 million.

USDA pegged corn area at 95.864 million acres, up four percent from last year and the most in 75 years.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected farmers to plant 94.72 million acres of corn.

The USDA polled farmers a few weeks ago and since then soybean prices have gained on corn so final planting numbers could be different from this early look.

On the face of it, a larger than expected corn acreage number should have weakened new crop prices, but USDA’s March 1 stocks number was about 150 million bushels less than expected. Growers would need to increase 2012 acreage by close to a million acres to replace that corn.

In its quarterly grains stocks report, the USDA said corn supplies as of March 1 stood at 6.009 billion bushels, below trade estimates for 6.150 billion. Remember, last year at this time the stocks number was eight percent larger and that caused panic.

Soybean stocks were put at 1.372 billion bu., below estimates for 1.387 billion bu.

All wheat stocks were put at 1.2 billion bu.,  down from 1.425 billion last year and below the trade guess of 2.23 billion.

Spring wheat seeded area was pegged at 11.976 million acres, way less than the trade estimate of 13.313 million.

Durum area, USDA said, would be 2.223 million acres, up 62 per cent from last year when excess moisture prevented planting. However, the number was spot on the trade’s expectations.

U.S. farmers plan to seed 1.557 million acres of canola, up 45 percent from last year’s wet spring, but up only about seven percent from two years ago. Most of the gains are in Oklahoma which is trying out winter canola.

USDA sees oats acres up 15 percent from last year at 2.8863 million acres and barley up 30 percent at 3.333 million.

Flax area is expected to fall to rise to 289,000 acres from  178,000 last year, but two years ago the area was 421,000 acres.

Oil sunflower area is expected to be up 19 percent to 1.537 million acres and non oil  sunflowers up seven percent to 271,500 acres.

Lentil area is expected to climb 21 percent to 518,000 acres, but that is down from the number two years ago of 658,000 acres.

Pea area is expected to climb 71 percent to 619,000 acres, but that is  down from two years ago when seeding were 756,000 acres.

About the author

D'Arce McMillan

Markets editor, Saskatoon newsroom

Markets at a glance

explore

Stories from our other publications