USDA Acres Report Friday?

Maybe it was a good think the USDA Acres Report was on a Friday. After the corn market traded limit down for a while traders now have couple days to think about what the USDA corn acres number means and what it does not tell us. It was quite a shock to see the USDA release a corn acres number for 2019 that was actually higher than the corn acres planted 2018!

Remember the USDA surveys farmers the end of May and the report is as of June 1, 2019. It is very possible that the end of May and early June Farmers told the USDA they still intended to plant corn. Even in our area of Minnesota many farmers planted some corn in early June even though it was just beyond the date when farmers could take the prevented plant option. In Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio they had not even gotten to the prevented plant date yet.

Even though the corn market assumed all of those acres in the USDA Acres Report were planted that is not what it meant. It was acres planted or intended to be planted. Given all the rain that fell in the Midwest in June there is no question that all those acres did not get planted! Really the USDA Acres Report on Friday was so outdated it meant nothing. Unfortunately it still took corn down the limit!