USDA Releases January Report

The USDA released its January report Friday morning.

 

Dan Basse is president of AgResource Company in Chicago.

 

"The report by itself was a little negative," he said. "U.S. corn yields were up 1 bushel an acre to 168 bushels an acre. Soybeans up a half bushel an acre to 47.5. We did see a reduction in total combined corn harvested acreage of 300,000 and a combined reduction in soybean harvested acreage of 600,000, so adding those together - 900,000 less acres but again a rising yield. Not a big change in overall production. Stocks, at least for the old crop year, didn't change much."

 

Basse says that the USDA counts corn left out in the field as stored supply.

 

"It's really North Dakota, which is the epicenter of the standing crop. Maybe there's another 220 or 230 million bushels in the field, but let's say we take a 20 per cent loss of that corn, that's still not enough to move the needle. U.S. corn sales are still very, very slow. If I exclude Mexico, U.S. corn exports are record low outside of the Mexican destination. That's the one real problem for the corn market."

 

He notes U.S. winter wheat acreage is being pegged at 30.8 million acres, down about 300,000 from last year.

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.