Good morning.
Ag trade at the CBOT continues to be a quiet affair ahead of next week’s Christmas holiday, with the whole of the space trading quietly in the red coming out of the overnight session. Corn and wheat futures are unchanged to a penny lower, while the beans are 1-2 cents lower and the products are just on the negative side of unchanged.
Traders see this afternoon’s cattle on feed report for the month of December showing the US feedlot herd as of December 1 at 11.790 mil head, which would be down a little less than 2% from last year; placements in November are estimated at 1.652 mil head, while marketings in the month are seen at 1.530 mil head. The report will be out at 2pm central time this afternoon.
Sources familiar with the matter said on Friday that China’s Sinograin sold just over 30% of the 550,00) MT’s of reserve soybeans that were auctioned yesterday. The total reflects weaker buying interest in comparison to the first auction offered last week, which saw sales total roughly 80% of the amount offered. Traders say Sinograin likely has 40-45 MMTs of soybeans on hand, which would be enough to cover about five months of consumption.
In a weekly update released yesterday, the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange in Argentina again further raised their estimate of the country’s wheat crop from a previous estimate of 25.5 MMTs to now 27.1 MMTs, while also mentioning further increases are possible. The report also showed corn planting in the country at 69.5% complete, while soybean planting was seen at 67.3% complete; the corn figure is now back ahead of last year and near the top end of the range of the last 10 years, while soybean planting continues to lag both last year and average.
Similarly, the European Commission on Thursday also raised their grain production forecast for the bloc in the 2025/26 marketing year, seeing the figure now at 287.2 MMTs vs 286.9 MMTs in November; this includes 134.4 MMTs of wheat, 55.7 MMTs of barely, and 57.8 MMTs of corn.
Staying on the production front, Russia’s Ag Minister said at a televised government meeting on Thursday that the country had harvested over 147 MMTs of grain this year, which included 90+MMTs of wheat. She added that harvest had been completed on 97.5% of the area, and that grain quality was higher than what it was last year. Private analyst SovEcon offered a similar wheat figure, saying they had raised their production estimate from 88.6 MMTs previously to 88.8 MMTs.
In an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday, a USDA undersecretary said that a second round of farmer aid payments was “unlikely” once this initial $11 billion is dispersed, saying that “just based on dollar availability,” the odds were low of additional assistance. The undersecretary added that there was a chance Congress could step in to contribute more funds, but it made it sound like this also wasn’t likely. Crop-specific payment rates from the initial round of aid are expected be announced by the end of the year, and possibly as early as next week.
According to weekly data from the USDA, barge shipments down the Mississippi River in the week ending December 13th were up 62% from the week prior to 888k MTs; corn shipments were up 82% on the week to 499k MTs, and soybean shipments were up 42% on the week to 353k MTs. St. Louis barge freight rates were up $1.96 on the week to $20.07/short ton.
Midwest weather looks to turn a bit more benign into the weekend, as the low-pressure system that worked through the central part of the region yesterday exits the East Coast and brings about a few of days of drier conditions again. Satellite data for the last 24 hours shows rainfall totals adding up to a half inch to an inch generally speaking across most of the eastern US, while parts of the Dakotas/MN and northern IA saw snowfall of an inch or two, with heavier amounts seen near the Canadian border.
Models are little changed this morning on the weekend forecast for South America, with rains still expected to show up for most of Argentina beginning later tonight, though totals will favor areas in the central and northern parts of the country. This rain then looks to work north into southern Brazil by the early part of next week, though the heaviest totals look to likely favor more of the non-ag areas in northern Argentina and Paraguay. Rains in the north, meanwhile, will continue but will begin to have a more western bias as we get into the end of the month.
Have a great day!
Grain Comments: 12-19-2025
Good morning.
Ag trade at the CBOT continues to be a quiet affair ahead of next week’s Christmas holiday, with the whole of the space trading quietly in the red coming out of the overnight session. Corn and wheat futures are unchanged to a penny lower, while the beans are 1-2 cents lower and the products are just on the negative side of unchanged.
Traders see this afternoon’s cattle on feed report for the month of December showing the US feedlot herd as of December 1 at 11.790 mil head, which would be down a little less than 2% from last year; placements in November are estimated at 1.652 mil head, while marketings in the month are seen at 1.530 mil head. The report will be out at 2pm central time this afternoon.
Sources familiar with the matter said on Friday that China’s Sinograin sold just over 30% of the 550,00) MT’s of reserve soybeans that were auctioned yesterday. The total reflects weaker buying interest in comparison to the first auction offered last week, which saw sales total roughly 80% of the amount offered. Traders say Sinograin likely has 40-45 MMTs of soybeans on hand, which would be enough to cover about five months of consumption.
In a weekly update released yesterday, the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange in Argentina again further raised their estimate of the country’s wheat crop from a previous estimate of 25.5 MMTs to now 27.1 MMTs, while also mentioning further increases are possible. The report also showed corn planting in the country at 69.5% complete, while soybean planting was seen at 67.3% complete; the corn figure is now back ahead of last year and near the top end of the range of the last 10 years, while soybean planting continues to lag both last year and average.
Similarly, the European Commission on Thursday also raised their grain production forecast for the bloc in the 2025/26 marketing year, seeing the figure now at 287.2 MMTs vs 286.9 MMTs in November; this includes 134.4 MMTs of wheat, 55.7 MMTs of barely, and 57.8 MMTs of corn.
Staying on the production front, Russia’s Ag Minister said at a televised government meeting on Thursday that the country had harvested over 147 MMTs of grain this year, which included 90+MMTs of wheat. She added that harvest had been completed on 97.5% of the area, and that grain quality was higher than what it was last year. Private analyst SovEcon offered a similar wheat figure, saying they had raised their production estimate from 88.6 MMTs previously to 88.8 MMTs.
In an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday, a USDA undersecretary said that a second round of farmer aid payments was “unlikely” once this initial $11 billion is dispersed, saying that “just based on dollar availability,” the odds were low of additional assistance. The undersecretary added that there was a chance Congress could step in to contribute more funds, but it made it sound like this also wasn’t likely. Crop-specific payment rates from the initial round of aid are expected be announced by the end of the year, and possibly as early as next week.
According to weekly data from the USDA, barge shipments down the Mississippi River in the week ending December 13th were up 62% from the week prior to 888k MTs; corn shipments were up 82% on the week to 499k MTs, and soybean shipments were up 42% on the week to 353k MTs. St. Louis barge freight rates were up $1.96 on the week to $20.07/short ton.
Midwest weather looks to turn a bit more benign into the weekend, as the low-pressure system that worked through the central part of the region yesterday exits the East Coast and brings about a few of days of drier conditions again. Satellite data for the last 24 hours shows rainfall totals adding up to a half inch to an inch generally speaking across most of the eastern US, while parts of the Dakotas/MN and northern IA saw snowfall of an inch or two, with heavier amounts seen near the Canadian border.
Models are little changed this morning on the weekend forecast for South America, with rains still expected to show up for most of Argentina beginning later tonight, though totals will favor areas in the central and northern parts of the country. This rain then looks to work north into southern Brazil by the early part of next week, though the heaviest totals look to likely favor more of the non-ag areas in northern Argentina and Paraguay. Rains in the north, meanwhile, will continue but will begin to have a more western bias as we get into the end of the month.
Have a great day!
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