Thursday, August 16, 2012

US soybean acres may prove far higher than thought

Beans are trading at $16.2825 down 6.25 cents on the day and considerably off the $17.575 they hit in July.
From Agrimoney:
US growers may have lifted soybean sowings more than published data shows, according to farmers' returns to agricultural support officials, which signals sowings at least 1m acres higher.
Data compiled by the Farm Services Agency, which handles US Department of Agriculture disaster assistance, farm loan and conservation programmes, shows a 74.9m-acre number for soybean sowings.
That is 1m acres bigger than the USDA's official soybean planting number, as confirmed in the Wasde supply and demand report published on Friday, and drawn from a survey released in June.
And the real uplift may be even higher.
Planned vs actual
"We can expect a difference. But normally out numbers are lower than the Wasde numbers," an FSA spokesman told Agrimoney.com.
"Wasde numbers are survey numbers based on the entire universe" of US growers.
"Our numbers are actual numbers, but only for famers participating in our programmes," which while representing the great majority of growers, does not cover all.
Some, particularly largely farmers, chose not to enrol, said Don Roose, president of broker US Commodities said, supporting the credibility of the FSA data, in being based on real rather than survey results.
"These are the numbers you should be working with," Mr Roose said....MORE