Your Pro Farmer newsletter (May 14, 2022) is now available

USDA’s May crop reports featured the first official 2022-23 balance sheets and its initial 2022 winter wheat crop estimates. It was the winter wheat crop that caught traders by surprise, especially the HRW estimate, which came in 95 million bu. lower than the average pre-report estimate. USDA’s old- and new-crop wheat ending stocks forecasts were also lower than anticipated. The corn and soybean ending stocks data was generally neutral – even a little negative for old-crop corn compared to pre-report expectations. The one surprise for corn was a 4-bu.-per-acre cut to the projected yield due to planting delays. USDA has made downward adjustments to yield due to late plantings only a handful of times in the past, the most recent being 2013. USDA’s smaller-than-expected winter wheat crop estimate and early reduction to corn yield puts even more focus on weather amid global supplies concerns. Besides USDA’s monthly update, Brazil, China and others made changes to their crop estimates and balance sheets. We cover all of these items and much more in this week’s newsletter, which you can download here.