MarketsFarm – Farmers in the United States seeded fewer soybean acres than original intentions and slightly more corn, according to updated acreage estimates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, released June 30.
Total soybean area in the country for the 2022 growing season was pegged at 88.30 million acres by the government agency. That compares with the early intentions of 90.96 million acres but would still be up one per cent from the previous year. Average trade estimates had placed the crop at closer to 90.4 million acres.
Soybean futures at the Chicago Board of Trade climbed sharply higher in immediate reaction to the smaller acreage base, but the buying interest was short-lived with prices well off their highs once the initial surge died down. Attention in the markets will now be shifting to Midwestern weather conditions through the growing season.
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Corn area in the country is forecast to be down by about 3.5 million acres on the year, at 89.90 million acres. That was in line with trade guesses and up slightly from the earlier forecast of 89.49 million. Corn futures saw some choppy activity immediately following the report but were trending lower overall after the dust settled.
All-wheat area in the U.S., at 47.10 million acres, was only up slightly from the 47.02 million predicted in March and compares with the 46.70 million grown the previous year. If realized, the wheat area would mark the fifth-smallest acreage base since records began in 1919. Of the wheat total, spring wheat is forecast at 11.11 million acres, which would be down by 100,000 acres from the March estimate, but still above average trade guesses.
The lateness of spring seeding in Minnesota and the Dakotas meant that large areas were still unseeded at the time of the survey in late-May/early-June. As a result, the National Agricultural Statistics Agency (NASS) will conduct another survey of those three states in July, with updated acreage estimates to be released on Aug. 12.
In a separate quarterly stocks report, the USDA reported that 971 million bushels of soybeans were on-hand in the country as of June 1, which was up by 26 per cent from the previous year. Corn stocks, at 4.35 billion bushels, were up six per cent. Meanwhile, wheat stocks tightened over the past year, down 22 per cent since the same time in 2021 at 660 million bushels. The stocks numbers for all three crops were largely in line with trade expectations.
