USDA Releases 'Disappointing' February WASDE

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

 

Dan Basse is president of AgResource Company in Chicago.

 

"The USDA, in their February nature, and it's usually a month of not very big changes, left things a little disappointing for the markets in Chicago. They only raised U.S. corn imports by 50 million bushels, leaving stocks at 1.5 billion bushels. They raised soybean exports 20 million bushels, leaving stocks there at 120 million bushels but everything else including U.S. wheat was unchanged."

 

Basse also commented on the world stage.

 

"They did cut the world wheat end stocks about 9 million metric tons. They raised Chinese feed use to 304 million metric tons. They've been selling a lot of wheat out of reserve in China. That's of course been going into the feed channel. Other than that, they raised Chinese corn imports to 24 million metric tons, that was versus 17.5 last month but again traders here in Chicago are left wandering, if they raised China's corn imports that much, why didn't the U.S. participate. Probably Ukraine and Brazil were sellers of some corn to China, but surely not enough to make up that USDA total."

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.