Soybean stocks in all positions on March 1 were estimated at 2.107 billion bushels, up 21% from 1.739 billion bushels on March 1, 2017, the USDA said. On-farm stocks were 855 million bushels, up 28% from last year, and off-farm stocks totaled 1.252 billion bushels, up 17%. Indicated disappearance during the December 2017-February 2018 period was 1.05 billion bushels, down 9% from the same period a year earlier, the USDA said.
Durum stocks on March 1 were 49.196 million bushels, down 7% from 52.984 million bushels a year ago. On-farm durum stocks were 25.8 million bushels, down 20% from a year earlier, while off-farm stocks were 23.396 million bushels, up 14%. Indicated disappearance during the December-February period was 6.86 million bushels, down 66% from a year earlier.
The USDA stocks numbers were above trade expectations for corn, which averaged 8.703 billion bushels, and for soybeans, which averaged 2.030 billion bushels, but were slightly below the average wheat expectation of 1.498 billion bushels.