Headlines:

  • Hurricane Irma Whips Orange Trees, Shuts Tyson Meat Plants
    Hurricane Irma stripped oranges from trees and prompted Tyson Foods Inc to shut meat plants in Florida and Georgia on Monday to keep workers safe. Tyson, the biggest U.S. meat company, hopes to resume normal operations soon at chicken plants it shuttered in Cumming, Dawson, and Vienna, Georgia, and at a beef facility in Jacksonville, Florida, spokesperson Derek Burleson said. Irma, one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes ever recorded, hit a wide swath of Florida on Sunday and Monday before moving inland into neighboring states. In Georgia, the Port of Savannah, which exports almost a third of all U.S. poultry, will remain closed through Tuesday, the Georgia Ports Authority said. Among the areas hit in Florida was the state’s prime citrus-producing region, said Lisa Lochridge, spokesperson for the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association. Florida is ranked first among U.S. states in production value for oranges and in 2015 produced $1.17 billion of the fruit, accounting for 60% of the value of total U.S. orange production, according to Florida’s agriculture department. The state is also a major producer of tomatoes and sugarcane. “The fruit was just stripped from the trees by the wind,” Lochridge said, citing early reports from orange growers. Oranges knocked to the ground cannot be consumed, she said.
  • Corn leads grain markets lower, after surprise US yield upgrades
    Soybean and, especially, corn futures tumbled, although wheat prices revived, after the US surprised traders by raising its yield forecasts for both row crops, while cutting hopes for values farmers can expect. Soybean futures for November, which had stood only marginally lower ahead of the US Department of Agriculture estimate revisions, tumbled 2.3% in the aftermath, to $9.37 ½ a bushel. The drop reflected an upgrade in the USDA’s forecast for the domestic soybean yield this year of 0.5 bushels per acre to 49.9 bushels per acre, rather than the 0.6 bushels-per-acre downgrade that investors had expected.

Summary:

According to the USDA WASDE report today, the Corn and Soybean are getting bigger as stocks grow larger as well. Both Corn and Soybean responded bearishly to the report data release. November Beans was ½ cent shy of shedding double-digit losses after losing 9.50 cents on the day. December Corn was down almost 1.7%, giving up 6 cents. Wheat bucked the trend and turn up on the day. December Wheat rose 7.25 cents.

The USDA pegged average US Corn yields at 169.9 bushels per acre which was slightly higher than the trade estimate of 168 bushels per acre and very close to last month’s estimate of 169.5 bushels per acre. They pegged the average US Soybeans yield at 49.9 bushels per acre. The trade average estimate was at 48.8 bushels per acre and last month’s USDA’s estimate was 49.4.

US Corn stocks for the 2017-18 marketing year was pegged at 2.335 billion bushels, exceeding both the average trade estimate and the USDA’s previous estimate. US Soybeans ending stocks were pegged at 475 million bushels, matching last month’s estimates and exceeding the average trade estimate by 33 million bushels. US Wheat ending stocks came in at an estimate of 933 million bushels beating the average trade estimate by 13 million and unchanged from last month’s USDA estimate.