Corn and beans are in various growth stages throughout our region, but all could certainly use a drink this weekend. On Monday’s crop progress report, Ohio corn had dropped from 58% GD/EX last week to 49% this week. Beans were also rated at 49% GD/EX this week, previously 56%.
Month-end and quarter-end liquidation and non-threatening weather models here in the short term have led to a sharp downturn in the markets this week. In addition, export sales were little to be desired. Yesterday, we had the June 30th Acreage and Quarterly Stocks Report, where higher quarterly stocks seemed to outweigh the neutral to bullish acreage numbers. It appears that 34% of beans and 48% of corn remain in on-farm stocks. Corn acreage increased to 89.9 mil acres vs. 89.5 in the March planting intentions report. Ohio contributed to that number with a 1.5% increase. Bean acreage was lower than expected, coming in at 88.3 vs. 91 mil acres in March, and Ohio contributed with their acres lowered by 3%. The largest decreases in bean acreage were in ND, OK, TX, and GA.