US corn futures slid on Wednesday to their lowest level in almost a month and soyabean futures weakened after the US Department of Agriculture raised its domestic harvest estimates from already record-high levels. In a monthly report, the USDA said farmers will grow 15.226 billion bushels of corn this year, with an average yield of 175.3 bushels an acre. That was up from its October forecast for 15.057 billion bushels and an average yield of 173.4 bushels an acre.
The increase surprised analysts, who on average had expected corn production of just 15.041 billion bushels, with a yield of 173.2 bushels per acre, according to a Reuters survey. The USDA's latest yield and production estimates matched the high end of the range of analysts' forecasts in the survey. The Chicago Board of Trade's most-active corn contract was down 11-1/2 cents at $3.42-3/4 a bushel by 11:50 am CST (1750 GMT). The contract traded as low as $3.42, its lowest price since October 13.
Most-active soyabeans sank 23-1/4 cents to $9.88 a bushel, while wheat lost 5-1/2 cents to $4.09-3/4 a bushel. The USDA estimated the soyabean crop at 4.361 billion bushels, up 92 million bushels from its October outlook. The government raised its soyabean yield estimate to 52.5 bushels per acre from 51.4 bushels.
The USDA also unexpectedly raised its 2016-17 corn ending stocks outlook to 2.403 billion bushels, which would be the fifth biggest ever, from 2.320 billion. The agency increased its soyabean ending stocks forecast to 480 million bushels, 60 million bushels higher than the average of analysts' estimates and up from its October estimate of 395 million bushels. If realized, soyabean ending stocks would be the third highest on record.
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