Market Outlook

USDA’s Acreage report last month indicated that the 2020/21 soybean acreage is 83.8 million acres, a 10-percent recovery from 2019/20. A slightly higher harvested acreage estimate raises USDA’s forecast of 2020/21 soybean production by 10 million bushels from last month to 4.135 billion and from 3.55 billion last year. Changes for domestic soybean demand hike the expected season-ending stocks by 30 million bushels to 425 million. USDA raised its forecast of the 2020/21 U.S. average farm price by 30 cents per bushel this month to $8.50.

Farmers are rethinking the traditional commodity market and exploring new ways to capture value beyond the standard commodity price. Paul Schickler, owner of III Ag, shares some of the work that's making this possible.