USDA Lowers Corn Ending Stocks by 200 Million Bushels, Boosting Export and Ethanol Forecasts

Listen as KC Visits with Allendale’s Rich Nelson on the latest WASDE

USDA released its December Crop Production and World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) reports on Tuesday, and Farm Director KC Sheperd caught up with Allendale’s Rich Nelson to talk about the latest agricultural report.

USDA cut corn ending stocks by 200 million bushels (mb), aggressively improving its forecasts for exports and ethanol production. The new ending stocks estimate, 1.738 billion bushels (bb), is 62 mb below the lowest pre-report trade estimate.

According to Nelson, it was the largest decline ever seen in a December report, which are normally relatively quiet. As he explained, fifty mb of that decline was the result of higher corn for ethanol numbers – production numbers are 4% over last year and exports are doing well; however, 150 million bushels were added to exports.

“Even before we hear our new president’s official trade policy, USDA came out very confidently and made a clear statement. In other words, they feel like these strong exports on the corn side will last and are valid rather than merely tied to pre-trade policy buying,” Nelson explained.

He spoke more on USDA’s response to President-elect Trump’s expected trade policies and more about the this and the next WASDE report. Click the Listen Bar at the top of the page to hear the complete conversation.

Soybean ending stocks for 2024-25 were left unchanged at 470 mb, while wheat stocks declined 20 mb to 795 MB.

Tuesday’s new-crop U.S. ending stocks estimates were bullish for corn, neutral to slightly bearish on soybeans, and slightly bullish for wheat. Meanwhile, world ending stocks estimates from USDA were bullish for corn, neutral to slightly bearish for soybeans, and neutral for wheat.

You can also view the full reports here:

— Crop Production: https://www.nass.usda.gov/…

— World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE): http://www.usda.gov/…

U.S. ENDING STOCKS (Million Bushels) 2024-25
DecAvgHighLowNov
Corn1,7381,8871,9381,8001,938
Soybeans470471531430470
Wheat795816835787815
WORLD ENDING STOCKS (million metric tons) 2023-24
DecAvgHighLowNov
Corn316.2314.1314.3313.5314.2
Soybeans112.2112.3112.5112.0112.4
Wheat267.4266.3267.4266.0266.3
WORLD ENDING STOCKS (million metric tons) 2024-25
DecAvgHighLowNov
Corn296.4303.4305.3300.0304.1
Soybeans131.9132.9135.0132.0131.7
Wheat257.9257.6259.9255.5257.6
Verified by MonsterInsights