Corn and soybean stocks are lower than this time last year and commodity brokers say that is due to feed use increases, according to USDA's Quarterly Grain Stocks report released Wednesday.
Old crop corn stocks as of the beginning of September are 10% lower than Sept. 1, 2019 at just under 2 billion bushels. On-farm corn stocks dropped 8% to 751 million bushels compared to a year ago; off-farm corn stocks are 12% lower at 1.24 billion bushels.
Allendale Commodity Broker Mike Lung told Agri-Pulse producers used more corn for feed than expected.
“Last year, you had a poorer quality corn so potentially you had to use more of it to get the same product because of the lower quality we saw,” he said.
Lung said USDA's estimate came in much lower than trade expectations. Traders were expecting the lowest estimate to be 2.12 billion bushels of corn which helped create a more bullish report.
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Old crop soybeans stocks dropped to 523 million bushels as of Sept. 1, 2020, a decline of 42% compared to last year. On-farm soybean stocks are down 47% from last year at 141 million bushels and off-farm stocks totaled 382 million bushels, down 41%. Lung said demand increases were also true for soybeans.
“Potentially with all the backlog of cattle and hogs that we’re seeing that more feed needs (brought) that demand side of the equation up a bit more than we expected,” Lung noted.
All wheat stored as of Sept. 1, totaled 2.16 billion bushels, which is down 8% from last year. On-farm stocks are estimated at 705 million bushels which is down 4% percent from a year ago; off-farm stocks are down 10% from last year, totaling 1.45 billion bushels.
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