Headlines:

  • Alabama Reports Three Cases of Bird Flu in Poultry
    CHICAGO, March 14 (Reuters) – Alabama has found bird flu at three poultry facilities in the northern part of the state, its agriculture department said on Tuesday, near where two cases were detected recently in Tennessee. Alabama has “not received any definitive” test results that confirm its cases are highly pathogenic, which is the more lethal form of the virus for poultry, a spokeswoman for the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries said.
  • Brazil’s Soybean Harvest Moves Over Halfway Finished
    Brazilian producers have accelerated the soybean harvest in the past week. The harvest rose to 56% last Thursday, March 9, according to AgRural’s survey. The result is ahead of the 52% registered in the same period last year and the five-year average of 47%. In the states of North and Northeast Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí, and Bahia (known as matopiba), the results are surprising. “Producers continue to report higher-than-expected yields. The productivity of these states could be raised again, further increasing the size of Brazilian production,” says AgRural. The consultancy increased its soybean production estimate from 105.4 million to 107 million tonnes. The estimate could be revised up again in April.
  • Analysts see huge US soybean acres, but production to fall
    US farmers are getting ready to plant record amounts of soybeans, analysts agree, but unless the crop also sees unusually good conditions, the harvest will fail to match the previous season. In a survey of farmer planting intentions, an Illinois-based research and brokerage firm sees soybean plantings up 6.5% year on year, at 88.825m acres. This an even bigger increase year-on-year than that forecast by the US Department of Agriculture last month, at 88.0m tonnes, reflecting the relatively attractive price of soybeans compared to corn. And it beats the 88.02bn acres forecast made by analyst Informa this week.

Summary:

May Corn futures were little changed today advancing 1.25 cents today. Soybean futures on the other hand were once again weaker with the harvest in South America accelerating. May Beans finished the day giving up 7 cents. This time of the year buyers often turn to South America to meet supply demands. The all-important 1000 mark was broken today for the May, July and November contracts. The Soybean complex will need to get back above this mark to help avoid panic selling. The Brazilian Soybean harvest has moved beyond the halfway mark and the Argentine harvest is set to kick off soon. Given the production results of the recent US harvest and the expectations for the Brazilian harvest, the trade is beginning to believe that Argentina will also produce large yields. July Wheat had another down day falling 1.50 cents. Crude Oil futures continue to be under pressure following announcements by of Saudi Arabia raising its oil output back above 10 million barrels a day. In doing so it is in essence going back on a 3rd of its previously promised cuts made in January this year.