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The June 11 monthly USDA report contained a couple mild surprises, but nothing that will take weather off the front burner for the grain/soy complex. As expected, government analysts did not change their corn and soybean acreage or yield projections. The June Acreage Report is scheduled for release the last Friday of this month.

There was a larger-than-expected cut in old-crop corn usage. In reaction to relatively slow shipments, USDA slashed 50 million bushels from its export projection and added that amount to the carryover projection for both this year and next year. Each marketing year is expected to end with a little less than a billion bushels of corn left over.

On the price friendly side, the winter wheat crop estimate came in a little smaller than a month earlier. The size of the downward adjustment was only 6 million bushels, but because the market expected to see about 24 million added to the estimate, this news is being billed as positive for prices. For perspective, the 1.61-billion-bushel estimate is still 24% larger than last year’s winter wheat crop.

Editor’s note: Richard Brock, The Corn And Soybean Digest's Marketing Editor, is president of Brock Associates, a farm market advisory firm, and publisher of The Brock Report.

To see more market perspectives, visit Brock's Web site at www.brockreport.com.