July 11, 2009

US farmers will be producing more corn and soy for the 2009-10 marketing year due to the higher acreage reported last month, the USDA said Friday (Jul 10) in its monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report.

"Soy production is projected at 3.26 billion bushels, up 65 million due to increased harvested area," the USDA said. The forecast for soy acreage that farmers will harvest this year was raised in the USDA's June 30 acreage report to 76.547 million acres, up from 75 million acres in the June 10 supply and demand report.

US farmers have planted and will harvest more corn than previously expected, according to the June 30 acreage report and, as a result, the USDA on Friday also raised its forecast for corn production in the 2009-10 marketing year.

The new corn production forecast is 12.29 billion bushels, up from last month's supply and demand forecast of 11.935 billion bushels.

The USDA also on Friday raised its forecasts for corn and soy ending stocks. Corn ending stocks for the 2009-10 marketing year are now predicted to total 1.55 billion bushels, up from the 1.09 billion bushels the USDA forecast a month ago. The new soybean ending stocks forecast is 250 million bushels, up from the 210 million bushels that the USDA predicted a month ago.

Soy exports will be higher than expected this year, the USDA said in the supply and demand report. The new forecast for US soy exports in the 2009-10 marketing year is 1.275 billion bushels, up from the June forecast of 1.26 billion.