USDA Report Today Wow!

There was one number in the USDA Report that was released at 11AM that really catches your attention. It was the corn acres in the Prospective Plantings Report. Last year U.S. farmers planted 87.999 million acres. The USDA's survey showed U.S. farmers intend to plant 93.6 million acres this year. That is an increase of about 5.5 million acres with cash corn at about $3.30 for fall delivery. I guess farmers are thinking even though corn prices are below break-even beans are not profitable either. So, they think they have a better chance of getting a really high corn yield to cover costs than a really high bean yield.

The other numbers in the USDA reports were maybe even a bit friendly compared to the guesses. Corn stocks came in at 7.808 billion compared to last year in March of 7.75 billion. Farmers plan on planting 82.236 billion acres of beans this year compared to 82.65 in 2015. Bean stocks were lower than the guesses at 1.531 billion compared to last year at 1.327 billion. Now it all comes down to the weather, which will determine how many acres of corn and beans actually get planted. You also have to think with corn down 16 cents as I write this if some of those intended corn acres might switched back to another crop!