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.
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