Robust for wheat, not so great for beans.
CHICAGO, April 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s statistics division is conducting a “deep dive” review of how it conducts its quarterly U.S. grain stocks reports, an official said during an online conference on Wednesday.
The quarterly reports are among the most market-sensitive releases from the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. The stocks figures, detailing the amount of major crops held on and off U.S. farms, are based on surveys of about 8,400 commercial grain facilities and roughly 80,000 farmers. The United States is the world’s biggest supplier of corn and a top exporter of soy and wheat.
“We certainly look at these programs each and every year, but this is a deeper dive that we will be doing this year,” Lance Honig, chief of the agency’s crops branch, said in an online meeting for USDA data users.
A team has been assigned to review the sampling methods and questionnaires that USDA uses to collect the data as well as how the agency processes the information, Honig said. The team’s findings and recommendations are expected by Sept. 30 and any changes would go into effect after Oct. 1, he said.
The stocks reports have a history of jolting futures markets. Chicago Board of Trade corn futures soared 5% on Jan. 12 after the USDA’s report of Dec. 1 corn stocks fell below trade expectations and included a significant downward revision for stocks as of Sept. 1.
Honig acknowledged that recent quarterly grain reports have included some unusually large revisions.
“The fact of the matter is, the previous quarter was always open to revision,” Honig said, noting that stocks revisions are often due to updated or late-reported data on supply or usage.
The American Farm Bureau Federation in January said farmers’ confidence in the USDA’s reports had faded, and it called on the government to modernize its technology and improve transparency. (Reporting by Julie Ingwersen. Editing by Sam Holmes.)
So many vessels filled with #soybeans on the map now that it wont let me take the full snapshot. #China is cut off, but I will show the arriving cargoes in the next tweet. #Brazil's April soybean exports are expected at an all-time record for any month.
Replying to
#Soybeans arriving in #China, ones that were shipped in the earlier stages of #Brazil's 2020/21 campaign.
Export sales:
Todays huge move higher in the grains has more to do with old crops stocks not being high enough to satiate the demand before the new crop is harvested later this year.....so there must be price rationing (higher) to reduce demand down to the level of stocks that are available.