Soybean Crop at Bottom End of Trade Ideas

WASHINGTON - Aug 11/06 - SNS -- Soybean production is forecast at 2.93 billion bushels, down 5% from 2005 and down 6% from 2004 and at the bottom end of pre-report forecasts by the trade, according to the USDA's latest crop production estimates.

Surveys of traders revealed, they were looking for today's report to come in at traders are looking for production to be pegged at 3.02 billion bushels, with trade guesses ranging between 2.909 and 3.105 billion.

Based on August 1 conditions, yields are expected to average 39.6 bushels per acre, down 3.7 bushels from the record high U.S. yield set last year and below the average pre-report trade guess yields would be 40.8 bushels per acre.

Yields are lower than 2005 throughout the Great Plains, the western Corn Belt, and the Gulf Coast States, while yields are expected to remain unchanged or increase in the Ohio Valley, Arkansas, Missouri, and the Atlantic Coast States. Area for harvest, at 73.9 million acres, remains unchanged from June but is up 4% from 2005.

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