News
Grain market closely watching crop acreage
An ag economist says the market will be closely watching crop acreage numbers for trading signals the rest of June.
The University of Missouri’s Ben Brown said he’s curious to see where USDA pins corn and wheat acreage at the end of the month in its acreage report.
“I think those two will be very interesting numbers,” he said. “The trade will start anticipating what those could be in the weeks ahead and I think that’s going to overshadow any of the conditions reports.”
Brown said while planting progress has risen sharply in the last couple of weeks, that could mean planted acreage is decreasing rather than a quick planting pace coming off planting struggles in the northern plains and parts of the Cornbelt.
He tells Brownfield crop condition ratings will become a bigger market factor the second week of July as corn pollination opens up.
“It’s really, kind of, a double barrel approach,” Brown said. “One, condition scores have to be, maybe, a little bit declining, right. And the outlook for weather has to hot and dry. Given what we say from the weather models this week, the hot and dry certainly looks like it could be a player.”
USDA’s upcoming acreage report will be out at noon eastern on June 30th.
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