USDA Reports Preview

On Thursday, Jan. 12 at 11 a.m. CST, USDA will issue a Crop Production report, a World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report, a Grain Stocks report for Dec. 1 and its annual report of Winter Wheat Seedings.

CORN

After USDA cut corn’s export estimate by 75 million bushels (mb) in December, another reduction could be on the way Thursday as corn export commitments in 2022-23 are down 47% from a year ago at this time, losing business to cheaper prices in Brazil. Dow Jones’ survey of 19 analysts expects USDA to increase its estimate of U.S. ending corn stocks from 1.257 billion bushels (bb) to 1.302 bb. Ethanol is another suspect on the demand side, but so far in 2022-23, ethanol production is keeping pace with a year ago.

USDA’s estimate of corn production is expected to stay roughly the same at 13.922 bb with a yield of 172.4 bushels an acre on 80.7 million harvested acres. Given the impressive reports in the Eastern Corn Belt later in the harvest season, there is room for a modest increase in the corn production estimate. Read more