USDA Reports Summary

By DTN Staff

This article was originally posted at 11:03 a.m. CDT. It was updated at 11:50 a.m.

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OMAHA (DTN) -- USDA on Thursday released its Prospective Plantings and March 1 Grain Stocks reports.

USDA sees farmers planting 91 million acres (ma) of soybeans, a new record, while corn acreage is forecast to fall 4% from last year to 89.5 ma.

DTN Lead Analyst Todd Hultman says USDA's new planting intentions are bullish for new-crop corn, moderately bearish for new-crop soybeans and neutral for new-crop wheat. Hultman says the Grain Stocks report was neutral for corn and soybeans, bullish for wheat.

Stay tuned throughout the morning and refresh this page often as we will be sending a series of updates with the important highlights from today's reports, including commentary from our analysts.

You can also access the full reports here: https://www.nass.usda.gov/…

For DTN's exclusive audio comments on today's reports, visit: http://listen.aghost.net/…

PROSPECTIVE PLANTINGS

USDA sees farmers planting 91 ma of soybeans, a new record, while corn acreage is forecast to fall 4% from last year to 89.5 ma.

For corn, USDA said planted acreage is expected to be down or unchanged in 43 of the 48 states, resulting in 3.87 ma fewer acres planted to corn than last year. It's the lowest acreage estimate in five years.

For soybeans, USDA's record estimate is 4% higher than last year, with acreage up or unchanged in 24 states.

USDA pegged all wheat acres at 47.4 ma, up 1% from last year and in line with pre-report analyst estimates. If realized, this would be the fifth lowest all wheat planted acres since records began in 1919.

Of that, winter wheat was estimated to hit 34.2 ma, up 2% from last year. Within those acres, hard red winter acres are projected at 23.7 ma, with 6.89 ma going to soft red winter and 3.62 ma are white winter wheat.

All other spring wheat was projected to reach 11.2 ma, down 2% from last year, with durum accounting for 1.92 ma, up 17% from the previous year.

Farmers intend to plant 6.21 ma to sorghum this year, 15% less than last year. Acreage is down significantly in Kansas and Texas.

Barley acreage is expected to increase 11% to 2.94 million acres, with Montana's crop covering 12% more land than last year.

Sunflower acreage is expected to increase 10%. While it's up from last year, it represents the fifth lowest planted area on record.

QUARTERLY GRAIN STOCKS

Corn stored in all positions on March 1, 2022, totaled 7.85 billion bushels (bb), up 2% from March 1, 2021, but slightly below the pre-report average.

Of total stocks, 4.08 bb are stored on farms, up 1% from the same quarter a year ago.

Off-farm stocks are reported at 3.77 bb, up 3% from a year ago. The December 2021-February 2022 disappearance (usage) is reported at 3.79 bb, compared with 3.6 bb for the same period last year.

Soybeans stored in all positions on March 1 totaled 1.93 bb, up 24% from March 1, 2021. Soybeans stored on farms are estimated at 750 billion bushels, up 26% from a year ago. Off-farm stocks are reported at 1.18 bb, up 22% from last March. Disappearance from December 2021-February 2022 totaled 1.22 bb, down 12% from the same period last year.

All wheat stored in all positions on March 1 totaled 1.02 bb, down 22% from a year ago. The wheat stocks for March 1 came in at the lowest level in 14 years. On-farm stocks are estimated at 174 million bushels, down 39% from the same period last year. Off-farm stocks are reported at 850 million bushels, down 17% from a year ago. The December 2021-February 2022 disappearance is pegged at 353 million bushels, down 10% below the same period a year ago.

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Editor's Note: Join DTN Lead Analyst Todd Hultman at 12:30 p.m. CDT on Thursday, March 31, for a look at what the day's numbers mean for grain prices. To register, visit: https://ag.dtn.com/…

QUARTERLY STOCKS (million bushels)
	3/1/22	Avg	High	Low	12/1/21	3/1/21
Corn	7,850	7,885	8,087	7,630	11,647	7,696
Soybeans	1,931	1,893	1,965	1,602	3,149	1,562
Wheat	1,025	1,064	1,325	998	1,390	1,311
PROSPECTIVE PLANTINGS
ACREAGE (million acres)					USDA
	3/31/22	Avg	High	Low	2020/21
Corn	89.5	92.0	93.5	89.7	93.4
Soybeans	91.0	88.8	92.2	86.0	87.2
Cotton	12.2
All Wheat	47.4	47.8	48.9	46.2	46.7
Winter	34.2	34.4	35.6	33.7	33.6
Spring	11.2	11.7	12.5	10.5	11.4
Durum	1.9	1.7	1.8	1.5	1.6

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