August WASDE shows little change on U.S. acreage

The USDA released its August World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report Friday morning.

Jon Driedger is vice-president with LeftField Commodity Research.

"Very few changes on the acreage side. It looks like farmers largely got the crop in even though there was the late start. From an overall yield perspective, a little bit lower on the corn. A little bit lower than what the market was expecting. A little friendly on the corn but a little negative on the beans. They actually bumped the yield up and that came in above expectations and so from a production perspective, maybe a little bit bearish on the soybean side."

Driedger gave an update on crops south of the border.

"There's definitely some dryness and heat in the western corn belt and that's where we're starting to see a little bit of a dip in crop ratings, not dramatically so. We've seen that corn yield come off a little bit. I think soybeans actually held up surprisingly well given some of the weather that we've had and maybe that's where it sort of caught the market off guard a little bit. Maybe that chapter is not fully written yet here as well. Still a little bit in weather watch mode. Certainly some areas of concern but generally ratings, let's call it average-ish, to kind of oversimplify it a little bit."