US Corn Ending Stocks down 36% from September 2020, Soybean Ending Stocks down 51% from Last Year

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) Grain Stocks report released today showed that old crop corn stocks on hand as of Sept. 1, 2021, totaled 1.24 billion bushels, down 36% from Sept. 1, 2020. Old crop soybeans stored in all positions were down 51% from Sept. 1, 2020, and all wheat stocks were down 18% from a year earlier.

Of the total corn stocks, 395 million bushels were stored on farms, down 47% from last year. Off-farm stocks, at 842 million bushels, were down 28% from a year ago. The June-August 2021 indicated disappearance was 2.87 billion bushels, compared with 3.08 billion bushels during the same period a year earlier.

Old crop soybeans stored in all positions on Sept. 1, 2021, totaled 256 million bushels, down 51% from Sept. 1, 2020. Soybean stocks stored on farms totaled 68.1 million bushels, down 52% from a year ago. Off-farm stocks, at 188 million bushels, were down 51% from last September. Indicated disappearance for June-August 2021 totaled 513 million bushels, down 40% from the same period a year earlier.

This report also contains revisions to the previous season’s production for corn and soybeans, which is normal for this time of year since the marketing year is complete. Production for 2020 corn was revised down less than 1% while 2020 soybean production was revised up 2% from the previous estimate.

All wheat stored in all positions on Sept. 1, 2021, totaled 1.78 billion bushels, down 18% from a year ago. On-farm stocks were estimated at 419 million bushels, down 41% from last September. Off-farm stocks, at 1.36 billion bushels, were down 6% from a year ago. The June-August 2021 indicated disappearance was 711 million bushels, up 2% from the same period last year.

Durum wheat stocks in all positions on Sept. 1, 2021, totaled 46.9 million bushels, down 34% from a year ago. On-farm stocks, at 21.0 million bushels, were down 52% from Sept. 1, 2020. Off-farm stocks totaled 25.9 million bushels, down 6% from a year ago. The June-August 2021 indicated disappearance of 17.7 million bushels was down 56% from the same period last year.

In preparation for this report, NASS conducted separate surveys for on-farm and off-farms stocks during the first two weeks of September.

NASS also released the Small Grains Annual Summary report today. Key findings from that report include:

• All wheat production totaled 1.65 billion bushels in 2021, down 10% from the revised 2020 total of 1.83 billion bushels.
• Area harvested for grain totaled 37.2 million acres, up 1% from 2020.
• The U.S. yield was estimated at 44.3 bushels per acre, down 5.4 bushels from 2020.

The levels of production and changes from 2020 by type were:

• Winter wheat, 1.28 billion bushels, up 9%.
• Other spring wheat, 331 million bushels, down 44%.
• Durum wheat, 37.3 million bushels, down 46%.