Agricultural News
Leffler Says USDA Reports Holds Few Surprises
Tue, 31 Mar 2015 16:40:40 CDT
Soybeans are in the driver's seat in gaining acres across the U.S. The 2015 Prospective Plantings Report released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture showed a record number of soybean acres will be planted in the U.S. this year, while corn, wheat and cotton acres are shrinking. Tom Leffler of Leffler Commodities said the report held a few surprises.
"Overall the numbers came in line with what they (traders) were expecting, but not quite to the extreme they expected, so it ended up being a little bit negative for the corn and wheat and positive for soybeans," Leffler said.
Radio Oklahoma Network's Leslie Smith interviewed Leffler for reaction. Click or tap on the LISTENBAR below to listen to the full interview.
U.S. corn growers intend to plant 89.199 million acres in 2015. That was down two percent or almost 1.4 million acres from last year, but higher than trade expectations. Leffler said the trade was looking for that number to be below 89 million and if it was closer to 88 million that would have been more positive for corn trading in the futures market.
U.S. soybean acres were pegged at 84.635 million acres. If realized, this would be a record number of soybean acres. That was 934,000 more acres than last year. Leffler said that was lower than expectations as traders were looking for 86 million acres, so the lower number was positive for soybean prices.
Wheat acres in the U.S. declined. The all - wheat acreage was estimated at 55.367 million acres. That was down three percent over last year or almost 1.5 million acres. Winter wheat acres came in at 40.751 million acres. Leffler said Kansas was down 200,000 acres, Oklahoma was up 100,000, Texas was down 100,000, and Colorado was down 250,000 acres. Spring wheat was projected at 12.969 million acres, down 56,000 from a year ago. Leffler said the wheat projections came in lower than trade estimates, but there no bounce in the commodity market.
USDA also released the Quarterly Grain Stock report. Corn stocks totaled 7.74 billion bushels, up 11 percent or 737 million bushels more than a year ago. On-farm corn stocks were up 13 percent from a year ago, and off-farm stocks were up 7 percent. Leffler said the corn grain stocks number came in at the top end of trader's estimates, so that was negative for the corn market.
Soybeans stored on farms totaled 1.334 billion bushels. That was up 34 percent or 340 million bushels more than March 1, 2014. On-farm soybean stocks were up 60 percent from a year ago, while off-farm stocks were up 18 percent. Leffler said soybean stocks were in the middle of expectations, so the estimate was neutral.
All wheat stored totaled 1.124 billion bushels, up 6 percent or 67 million more bushels than a year ago. On-farm all wheat stocks were up 17 percent from last year, while off-farm stocks were up 3 percent. Leffler said this was in the middle of the estimated range for wheat stocks.
Now with report out of the way, Leffler said traders will be focusing on weather and planting progress over the next 30 - 45 days.
Click here for the National Prospective Plantings Report from USDA-NASS.
Click here for the Quarterly Grain Stocks report from USDA-NASS.
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