WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Agriculture in its March 29 Grain Stocks report estimated March 1 soybean stocks up 21% from a year earlier, corn stocks up 3% and wheat stocks down 10%, with the corn and soybean estimates above average trade expectations and wheat about as expected.
Soybean stocks in all positions on March 1 were estimated at 2,107,146,000 bus, up 21% from 1,738,933,000 bus on March 1, 2017, the U.S.D.A said. On-farm stocks were 855,000,000 bus, up 28% from last year, and off-farm stocks totaled 1,252,146,000 bus, up 17%. Indicated disappearance during the December 2017-February 2018 period was 1.05 billion bus, down 9% from the same period a year earlier, the U.S.D.A. said.
Stocks of corn in all positions on March 1 totaled 8,888,396,000 bus, up 3% from 8,621,992,000 bus a year ago. On-farm corn stocks were 5,002,000,000 bus, up 2% from last year, and off-farm stocks were 3,886,396,000 bus, up 5% from a year ago. Indicated disappearance of corn during the December-February period was 3.68 billion bus, down 2% from the same period last year, the U.S.D.A. said.
Wheat stored in all positions on March 1 totaled 1,494,369,000 bus, down 10% from 1,658,675,000 bus on March 1, 2017, the U.S.D.A. said. On-farm stocks of wheat were 259,310,000 bus, down 26% from 349,500,000 bus a year ago, while off-farm stocks were 1,235,059,000 bus, down 6% from 1,309,175,000 bus in 2017. Indicated disappearance of wheat during the December-February period was 379 million bus, down 10% from the same period a year earlier, the U.S.D.A. said.
Durum stocks on March 1 were 49,196,000 bus, down 7% from 52,984,000 bus a year ago. On-farm durum stocks were 25,800,000 bus, down 20% from a year earlier, while off-farm stocks were 23,396,000 bus, up 14%. Indicated disappearance during the December-February period was 6.86 million bus, down 66% from a year earlier.
The U.S.D.A. stocks numbers were above trade expectations for corn, which averaged 8,703 million bus, and for soybeans, which averaged 2,030 million bus, but were slightly below the average wheat expectation of 1,498 million bus.
