USDA Projects Record Soybean Crop for U.S. and Indiana

Oct 15, 2024

By Colleen Settle

The latest World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report released earlier this afternoon by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) projects record soybean crops for the U.S. and in the Hoosier state at 4.58 billion and 346.8 million bushels, respectively.

USDA’s October report reduced Indiana’s corn and soybean average yields by eight and three bushels per acre to 202 and 60 bushels per acre, respectively, since the last report.

“The report also reduced corn ending stocks and kept soybeans stocks unchanged from September. This is a positive step as the market was concerned about further increases to ending stocks,” explained Dr. Todd Davis, INFB chief economist. “However, there is still a large amount of inventory looming over farmers’ heads.”

According to Dr. Davis, corn stocks are projected to increase nationally by 640 million bushels from the 2022 crop. If realized, the 2024 corn ending stocks would be the largest since the 2019 marketing year relative to demand. The larger corn inventory will limit price potential. Similarly, USDA projects the soybean ending stock-to-use ratio at 12.5%, which is also the largest relative soybean inventory to demand since 2019.

“This large relative inventory will be a headwind for higher soybean prices without an increase in domestic demand or the threat of reduced production from South America,” noted Dr. Davis. “There could be some opportunities if any demand heats up before the holiday season as well as the impact of South American weather.”

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Video: Learning to Wrench From Dad the Hard Way

Harvest is a week out and the farm picked this week to fall apart. The truck needs a battery, the barn curtain's got a problem, and the corn and beans are telling us we're out of time to get it all fixed.

So it's a full day of wrenching. Tork supervises while I get the truck back running, then we're out at the hog barn where one rusted up part has the whole curtain system hung up. Ladder work, cable work, and a little dad-and-son disagreement about the right way to do it. We close it out walking the fields, shelling beans and checking corn, because whether everything's fixed or not, harvest starts when harvest starts.

Chapters: 00:00 Everything breaks the week before harvest 01:00 Tork supervises while I fix the truck 12:30 Out to the barn to find the curtain problem 14:30 One rusty part hung up the whole curtain 20:00 Running the curtain cable from the ladder 24:00 Walking the beans and corn before harvest 26:30 Wrapping up

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