Combines Roll in US - Will There Be Fewer Beans?

Greetings! I’m back from World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. World Dairy Expo draws about 70,000 attendees from 95 countries to the largest global dairy-focused event.

I’m not living dairy every day, so it was amazing to see technologies that are quickly advancing, like robotic milking machines. Yes, these types of machines have been around for a while, but the precision involved surprised me.

For example, the Astronaut 4 (I love the name!) from Dutch company Lely does so much more than milk a cow at her leisure. It uses scanning technology to detect teets while 3-D cameras monitor the cow’s movement. Plus, it’s an overall monitoring system, capturing herd information and feeding it back to the dairy producer.

Also of note at World Dairy… the USDA booths were up but a piece of paper on the counter said that workers would return when the government shutdown was over. The US has entered week two with no signs of a political compromise expected in the near future. The lack of USDA reports has limited price action and created choppy sideways trade this week.

Click here to learn more about the government shutdown’s impact on the futures market.

Informa Economics surprised the market late last week by dropping its forecast for US soybean production to 3.176 billion bushels from 3.22 billion bushels because of poor crop conditions last month. The downgrade is through a 0.7 bushel per acre yield reduction which would push the average yield to 41.7 bushels per acre. However, this is still higher than USDA's expectation for 41.2 bushels per acre.

According to Statistics Canada, Canadian farmers should expect record canola and wheat production. Canola production is expected to jump 15.9 per cent to 16.0 million tonnes and a result of a 31.3 per cent rise in yield to 36.9 bushels per acre.

Canada’s total wheat production is expected to rise 22.0 per cent from 2012 to a record high 33.0 million tonnes. This increase stems from an expected record average yield of 48.0 bushels per acre, up from 42.6 bushels per acre in 2012.

To close a personal note, I’d like to say Congratulations to my niece Hannah who won Supreme Heifer and Supreme Beef Showmanship at the Coshocton County Fair in Ohio, my hometown fair. It was Hannah’s last year to show in 4-H and I didn’t get to watch her because of my trip to World Dairy Expo, but I’m so proud of her!

Have a great week!