USDA Releases Uneventful December WASDE

The December USDA WASDE report released Thursday morning was quite uneventful.

 

Dan Basse is president of AgResource Company in Chicago.

 

"No real big changes," he said. "If there was a surprise, it was in soybeans where USDA did not increase the US export estimate. Instead, they chose to increase the crush rate by 15 million bushels to a record 2.2 billion bushels. The corn end stocks total was the same. They did make a modest adjustment in wheat, causing a five million bushel decline in U.S. wheat imports."

 

Basse commented on the global numbers.

 

"At the end of the day, when you look at the world balance sheet, the Canadian crop was raised slightly. The Australian crop was raised 1.5 million metric tons. Russia went up. World wheat stocks dropped four million metric tons due to increased export demand. As we come back from this report, it's all going to be about South American weather. The markets have sold off just slightly on the news but it's not something that we believe will be sustained unless those South American crops get a drink of rain and improving conditions as we look forward to 2021."

 

Basse says Tom Vilsack is a name being mentioned to take over as the next U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.

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.