Soybean prices fell by 2% after the latest report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates a record U.S. harvest of 3.82 billion bushels and record yields of 45.4 bushels per acre. The U.S. Farm Belt has seen three times the average rainfall over the past three months creating the best growing conditions for soybeans in the past decade. In contrast, corn prices gained after the report’s estimates of production and yields came up short of analyst expectations, although still at record levels. The USDA forecasts a U.S. corn crop of 14.03 billion bushels per acre breaking the record set in 2013 of 13.89 billion bushels, but surprisingly only forecasted average corn yields of 167.4 bushels per acre – well below analyst predictions of 170 bushels per acre. The agency raised its forecast for global wheat inventories at the end of the 2014/15 season to 192.96 million tons compared to analyst forecasts of 189.89 million tons pushing wheat futures down 1.6%.
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