WASHINGTON (Dow Jones) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture will resurvey how much corn, soybeans and spring wheat is being grown in four states that suffered planting delays.
The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, or NASS, already surveyed planting in Montana, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota in June, but because of delays there due to rain and flooding the agency wants a better assessment, said Lance Honig, chief of the crops branch for the USDA’s statistics service.
The new survey will be conducted in July.
Information from the previous survey was released Thursday as part of the USDA’s annual “Acreage” report that shocked the market with results showing an increase in corn planting this year. The USDA raised its corn estimate to 92.3 million acres, a 1.6-million-acre increase from an agency forecast earlier in June and a 5{e7e4ba4d9a3c939171d79cae1e3a0df1d41e5a91c3c4158fbb92284b490bc9d3} increase over the 88.2 million acres farmers sowed with corn last year.
Futures prices for U.S. corn plummeted Thursday after the USDA released the acreage report as well as a second report showing larger-than-expected supplies. The other report put the amount of corn in U.S. inventories as of June 1 at 3.67 billion bushels, down 15{e7e4ba4d9a3c939171d79cae1e3a0df1d41e5a91c3c4158fbb92284b490bc9d3} from a year ago, but well above analysts’ expectations.
Source: Dow Jones
Posted by Haylie Shipp
