NASHVILLE, TENN. (RFD-TV) — On Friday afternoon, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will receive our first World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimate (WASDE) in November (PDF Version) since the September report was released before the 43-day government shutdown. While economists have been anticipating strong yields, Greg McBride with Allendale, Inc., says that it is still up for debate.
“A lot of the conversation that’s revolved around things in the last, essentially, two months at this point, since we had our last WASDE report, was that the yields weren’t necessarily as good as advertised back at the end of summer as we were getting ready to harvest,” McBride explained. “And everybody kind of thought, ‘well, we’re probably closer to maybe a $182 or $183 [per bushel] on corn, and we were probably closer to maybe a $51- or $52-bushel crop, so there’s going to be conversations about that.”
Speaking of yields, according to a Reuters trader poll from earlier this week, they are expecting 183.8 bushels per acre for corn. That is below prior USDA estimates but above last year’s numbers.
For soybeans, traders expect to see 53.1 bushels per acre. USDA expects roughly the same, but that would be about 2.5 bushels more per acre than last year.
After the report’s release on Friday at Noon ET, Allendale’s Rich Nelson also joined RFD-TV’s own Tony St. James on Market Day Report for his reaction to the November WASDE:
As farmers seek additional revenue streams, biofuels have become a growing option, especially for corn growers. Arlan Suderman at Stone-X says the Trump Administration is working to create demand but warns that several roadblocks have emerged.
“You can talk about how that’s just the biofuel program is a subsidy for farmers, okay, that every country in the world that has the resources to do so protects its food supply by subsidizing farmers in some way. They would rather receive it via this way rather than a direct check. And so that’s one way that we can do it, through the biofuel program. That’s the decision that’s being made,” Suderman said. “And so if we could get that built up and up to speed right now, that is what’s really delaying us; we’re seeing a reduction in biofuel production and not taking off because of the delays in the EPA getting the final standards out there.”
The EPA earlier this year released its proposal on biofuel blending volumes, and public comment ended several months ago. There is no timeline for when the final rule will come down.
