On January 11, the USDA released a series of reports that
provide important fundamental information for the crop markets. The information
included the final estimate of the size of the 2012 U.S. corn and soybean crops,
estimates of December 1 crop inventories, a winter wheat seedings estimate, and
updated U.S. and world supply and consumption forecasts for the current
marketing year.
For corn, the 2012 U.S. crop is estimated at 10.78 billion
bushels, 55 million larger than the November forecast. The estimate of planted
acreage of corn for all purposes was increased by 209,000 acres, the estimate of
acreage harvested for grain was reduced by 346,000 acres, and the yield estimate
was increased by 1.1 bushels per acre. The production estimate was larger than
the pre-report average trade guess of just over 10.6 billion bushels, but the
estimate of December 1, 2012 stocks of corn was actually much smaller than the
average guess. <Read More>
