A federal government agency continue operations, despite restrictions imposed as the result of COVID-19.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Tuesday will release its Prospective Plantings and Quarterly Grain Stocks reports. A couple analysts, featured on our Network weekly, provide their expectations for these reports.
A Bloomberg poll outlines average estimates for the Prospective Plantings report. Analysts estimate corn acreage at 94.1 million, soybean acreage at 85.0 million, and all wheat acreage at 45.0 million.
Matt Bennett, founding parnter of Ag Market.Net, says this report should be “interesting,” and advises producers to take these findings with “a grain of salt.”
?Our expectations would be that (corn) acreage would be in that 94 (million) area. On soybeans, you?re looking at anywhere between 85 to 86 (million). We think planting intentions are going to be pretty interesting this year, given the world has changed so much since March 1. Not only have corn and soybean prices changed, but a lot of things have changed as far as expectations,? Bennett said.
Greg McBride, commodities broker with Allendale, encourages producers to keep a close eye on the Quarterly Grain Stocks report.
?If you remember from last year, we had a major increase in the feed and residual, which threw off everything for the next few months, as far as ending stocks go. If they do something similar to that, it could throw us out of whack,? McBride said. ?At this point, a lot of this stuff is reacting to what we?re seeing in the macro markets. There?s nothing all that bullish for corn because of the ethanol issues. But if we do run into some planting issues, similar to the way we did last year, we could see higher prices for corn.?
We will catch up with both analysts aftert the report’s release.
