News

USDA forecasts drop in ending stocks

The USDA expects U.S. corn and soybean inventories to decline this year.

At its Ag Outlook Forum in Washington this morning, the agency forecast corn ending stocks for the 2018-19 crop will be 2.3 billion bushels, a three percent decline from 2017-18.

Soybean ending stocks for 2018-2019 were pegged at 460 million bushels, down 13 percent from the prior year.

USDA projects a corn yield of 174 bushels per acre in 2018, down nearly three bushels from last year’s record yield. Total corn production is forecast to be 14.4 billion bushels, down one percent from last year.

The average soybean yield is pegged at 48.5 bushels an acre, down a half bushel from last year’s crop. Soybean production, at 4.3 billion bushels, would be down two percent from a year ago.

Wheat stocks for 2018-19 are expected to decline by eight percent to 931 million bushels.