How Many US Corn, Bean Acres Are Harvested?

Greetings! With the US government shutdown, no one is certain where the Midwest harvest is at. Jim Wyckoff reported in his weekly forecast that traders assume soybean harvest is about 30 to 40 per cent complete. Soybean harvest appears to be moving ahead of corn harvest because of the stronger basis and prices for soybeans.

Some industry guesses put the corn harvest at 25 to 30 per cent complete, and many expect that crop to go right into the grain bin until prices improve.

So far, harvest delays have been minimal, but cooler, wet weather is moving into Midwest this week. Weather.com is forecasting a low pressure cold front slowly pushing eastward across the Plains and Midwest through Wednesday.

Significant rain is expected to shift from the Dakotas to Minnesota and by Tuesday afternoon, rain and thunderstorms should stretch from Michigan back to the southern Plains. Ahead of the cold front, highs will range from the upper 60s to mid 70s from the great lakes to the Ohio Valley.

In other news…  Jim Wyckoff reported rumors that China is looking to buy US soybeans. However with the government shut still underway, there's no way to confirm the speculation.

Also, earlier this month Monsanto acquired The Climate Corporation for a cash purchase price of about $930 million.

In short, The Climate Corporation offers a system for highly detailed weather monitoring, prediction and analysis that ultimately allows them to offer a new type of weather insurance to farmers.

That said, Monsanto has made it clear that it’s buying tech expertise first, and the insurance business is secondary. Their new acquisition provides the farmer’s equivalent of a field-specific weather tracker, offering hourly reports of highly detailed weather forecasts like precipitation, wind speed, and email and text alerts when thresholds are exceeded. And not to fear… there’s a mobile app. :)

My own speculation: whoever can add the weather component into precision ag technology in a meaningful way for the farmer gets a big, big prize.

One final note, my thoughts are with the South Dakota farmers and ranchers who lost 75,000 head of cattle in a freak winter snow storm October 4-5. For more on this, click here. 

Have a great week.