Your Pro Farmer newsletter (Oct. 12, 2024) is now available

USDA issued its third crop estimates for corn, soybeans and cotton on Friday. Along with changes to the usage forecasts, that drove adjustments to projected new-crop ending stocks. We cover all of the report details on News pages 1 and 4. Corn and soybean harvest continues to rip along at a quick clip given ongoing hot and dry conditions. That limits impacts from the cold blast that will hit the upper Midwest. Hurricane Milton ripped through central Florida last week. Aside from the citrus crop, the potentially biggest impact to agriculture could be to the phosphate industry as Florida accounts for nearly two-thirds of U.S. production. On the geopolitical front, Moscow stepped up attacks on Ukrainian port infrastructure and grain cargoes, possibly to limit Ukraine’s shipments as Russia has less wheat to export this year. While U.S. East Coast and Gulf ports are returning to normal after the recent strike by union workers, Chinese ports continued to outperform those in the United States. We cover all of these items and much more in this week’s newsletter, which you can download here.