By Kirk Maltais
Hot and dry weather in June pushed yield expectations for U.S. corn crops planted this spring lower, according to government data.
In its latest world agricultural supply and demand estimates report Wednesday, the Department of Agriculture forecasts that corn yields will be an average of 177.5 bushels an acre, a drop from 181.5 bushels an acre projected last month.
The cut is smaller than what analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal were expecting ahead of the report's release. Analysts forecast corn yields would drop to 175.8 bushels an acre.
The soybean yield forecast was left unchanged at 52 bushels an acre by the USDA. Analysts expected soybean yields to fall to 51.4 bushels an acre in this month's report.
Hot weather and growing drought conditions throughout the Corn Belt in June were seen as the primary factors behind the yield cut for corn, the USDA said.
"Harvested-area-weighted June precipitation data for the major Corn Belt states represented an extreme downward deviation from average," the agency said. "However, timely rainfall and cooler than normal temperatures for some of the driest parts of the Corn Belt during early July is expected to moderate the impact of June weather."
The USDA is now forecasting corn production to total 15.32 billion bushels in the 2023/24 marketing year, and soybean production at 4.3 billion bushels. For corn, this is higher than the 15.27 billion bushels projected last month, while for soybeans it's lower than the 4.51 billion bushels previously forecast.
Meanwhile, estimates for wheat production were raised by the USDA, with 1.75 billion bushels now expected, up from 1.665 billion bushels forecast last month. Analysts were expecting an uptick of 12 million bushels, to 1.677 billion bushels.
Following the release of the WASDE, grain futures trading on the Chicago Board of Trade fell. Most-active corn futures fell 3.8%, soybeans lost 2.5%, and wheat dropped 3.6%
Write to Kirk Maltais at kirk.maltais@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
07-12-23 1247ET
