U.S. wheat ratings improve a bit; corn, soy harvests advance -USDA

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Monday rated 30% of the U.S. winter wheat crop in good to excellent condition, up 2 percentage points from the previous week but still the lowest for this time of year in records dating to the late 1980s.

The ratings also fell short of estimates from analysts surveyed by Reuters who on average had expected an improvement of 3 percentage points.

Good-to-excellent ratings for winter wheat in the 44th week of the calendar year have been below 40% only one other time in USDA records dating to 1987, at 39% in 2013. A year ago, 45% of the crop was rated good to excellent.

Wheat farmers have struggled with drought, particularly in the key southern Plains crop area, exacerbated by a third straight year of the La Nina weather phenomenon. The USDA said last week that 74% of the U.S. winter wheat production area was experiencing drought as of Nov. 1.

With newly planted wheat nearing winter dormancy, moisture needs will tend to diminish until growth resumes in the spring. Still, the poor ratings come at a time when U.S. wheat supplies are already tight after a disappointing 2022 harvest. The USDA has projected that U.S. wheat stocks will fall to 576 million bushels by the end of the 2022/23 marketing year, a 15-year low.

Welcome rains fell in portions of the Plains. In Kansas, the top winter wheat producer, topsoil moisture was short or very short in 78% of the state by Sunday, an improvement from 89% the previous week.

The U.S. harvest of corn and soybeans is winding down. The USDA said the soybean harvest was 94% complete, matching trade expectations and ahead of the five-year average of 86%. For corn, the harvest was 87% complete, ahead of the average analyst estimate of 86% and the five-year average of 76%.

The United States is the world’s largest corn exporter and the No. 2 supplier of soybeans after Brazil.
Source: Reuters