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Harvest surprises: U.S. yields disappoint while data drought clouds markets

The grain markets are eager to learn more about U.S. harvest results.

Analyst Angie Setzer with Consus Ag Consulting says the USDA’s October supply and demand report was absent because of the government shutdown.

“October and November is when you see the USDA update crop production using in-field data. And the one thing that we can say this year probably louder than any other year is that once you got in and started pulling actual ears and weighing and doing all the sort of harvest things, we did discover that the yields were less than expected pretty much everywhere.”

She tells Brownfield the lack of weekly crop progress reports has also had a market impact.

“Cash markets matched up to harvest progress, obviously like if basis is firming and harvest is only 10 percent done it’s a whole different scenario than if basis is firming and harvest is 90 percent done. So missing the crop progress is part of it.”

The USDA said Friday it will release its November supply and demand report on the 14^th despite the ongoing government shutdown.