In the overnight session the grains were mixed with December corn down 1 ¼ cents, November soybeans down 2 ¼ a cents and December wheat up 1 cent. Rains are slowing harvest in the Northwestern Midwest early this week and are expected to slow harvest again between Thursday and Saturday.
Harvest pace for corn is moving slower than expected with only 17 percent complete compared to average expectations of 21 percent and a four year average of 26 percent during this time of year. Soybean harvest is also behind pace with only 22 percent harvested which missed expectations of 25 percent. Soybean harvest over the last four years averages 26 percent complete this week.
Corn ratings improved to 63 percent rated good-to-excellent in this week’s Crop Progress report, which was above expectations of 61 percent. Soybean conditions held steady at 60 percent of the crop rated good-to-excellent.
The USDA announced that 151.6 million bushels of soybeans were crushed in August which was slightly below trade estimates of 152.3 million bushels. This brings total soybean crushings for the 16-17 marketing year to 1.899 billion bushels which is above the USDA’s forecast in the latest WASDE report of 1.895 billion bushels. Soybean oil stocks at the end of August were at 1.81 billion pounds which was below analyst expectations of 1.887 billion pounds. The USDA also reported that corn used for ethanol in August was 481 million bushels which was up from the previous month which reported 454.8 million bushels used.
Yesterday, it was announced that the Ohio River was closed to navigation near Brockport, Illinois after an equipment failure leaving roughly 89 vessels waiting to pass. It is unclear how long it will take to resolve the issue. This will continue to put pressure on grain basis which has already been pressured along the river as lower water levels have slowed the movement of freight.
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