The one sure thing about the January USDA reports is that they generated more interest than the market has seen in a long time. However, what USDA didn’t do might be just as important.The 12 January series of USDA reports held a few surprises, and the markets responded accordingly. Bob Kohlmeyer and John Baize covered the numbers in detail yesterday. Following, though, is a take on what USDA didn’t do that might be just as important:

Winter wheat acres, as WPI has written about several times recently, came in at the lowest level in 107 years. What USDA won’t report until the last day of March is how many acres of spring wheat will be planted. Our opinion today is that spring wheat acres will drop at least 500,000 acres from last year and...