October WASDE favors soybeans

The USDA decreased its U.S. corn yield estimate by 0.6 bushel from September to an average of 171.9 bushels per acre, according to last week's World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE). 

This is expected to give the U.S. a corn crop of 13.895 billion bushels, down 47 million bushels from September’s estimate. 

Corn exports were trimmed 125 million bushels and ethanol was cut 50 million bushels, but we did see an increase of 50 million bushels for feed and residual uses. 

This is forecast to give the U.S. corn carryout of 1.172 billion bushels at the end of this marketing year, a decrease of 47 million bushels. The average cash corn price forecast was raised 5 cents per bushel to an average of $6.80. 

Soybean balance sheets were also in line with trade guesses but were more supportive. The average U.S. yield was reduced 0.7 bushels to a national average of 49.8 bushels per acre. 

The U.S. crop...