USDA’s August production and supply/demand estimates were (again) bearish for soybeans, neutral-to-bearish corn and slightly bullish wheat. Following are some of the report highlights/surprises:
The markets were expecting small U.S. corn and soybean yield increases. However, USDA raised corn to the high side of estimates and increased the soybean yield a whopping 3.1 bushels/acre from the July estimate. USDA raised corn export demand, and that partially offset the production increase. Nevertheless, corn ending supplies were pushed higher by 132 million bushels from the July estimate. That is not an overly bearish number. The soybean yield estimate was a real WOW and pushed U.S. ending supplies to almost 800 million bushels...
The corn and soy complex closed higher, with the wheat market mixed, as winter wheat closed up but spring wheat and livestock ended lower. Part of the strength for corn and soybeans may have been a weather premium, as crop planting has started out fast but warm weather has been slow to develop...
Real GDP grew at a 2 percent annual rate in the first quarter of 2026, slightly below the consensus expectation of 2.3 percent but above the 0.5 percent growth in Q4 2025. The GDP number matches the average annualized pace of growth since the peak back in late 2007, right before the Financial P...
Reflect for a moment on what you eat. There is a lot of advice out there in the ether about what you should eat, but really, what do you currently eat and how much? The good people at the USDA have some data for you, to help you answer that question. USDA says that we eat quite a bit of meat. L...
