US wheat, corn stocks up; soy down

Wheat stored in all positions on March 1 totalled 1.35 billion bushels, up 30% from 1.04 billion bushels on March 1, 2009, the USDA said in its latest report on March 31.

On-farm stocks of wheat were 348.2 million bushels, up 24% from 280.4 bushels a year ago, while off-farm stocks were slightly more than 1 billion bushels, up 32% from 759.66 million bushels last year.

Indicated disappearance of wheat during the December-February period was 429 million bushels, up 12% from the same period last year, the USDA said.

The wheat stocks number was slightly below pre-report trade expectations that averaged about 1.36 billion bushels.

Stocks of corn on March 1 totalled 7.69 billion bushels, up 11% from 6.95 billion bushels a year ago. On-farm corn stocks were 4.55 billion bushels, up 11% from last year, and off-farm stocks were 3.14 billion bushels, up 10%. Indicated disappearance of corn during the December-February period was 3.23 billion bushels, up about 4% from the same period last year, the USDA said.

Soy stocks in all positions were 1.27 billion bushels, down 2% from 1.3 billion bushels on March 1, 2009, the USDA said. On-farm stocks were 609.2 million bushels, down 7% from last year, and off-farm stocks totalled 660.81 million bushels, up 2%. Indicated disappearance during December-February was 1.07 billion bushels, up 10% from the same period a year earlier, the USDA said.

The USDA stocks numbers for corn and soy were above trade expectations, which averaged 7.51 billion bushels for corn and 1.21 billion bushels for soy.