A few reports from USDA's Outlook Forum

While the Commodity Classic was going on last week, so was the annual USDA Outlook Forum in Washington, D.C.

You can find .pdf files and video webcasts of a number of presentations at the Forum's website, which you can find here. The Forum typically is filled to the brim with interesting presentations and reports - but with so much of the ag media in Texas at the Classic, there may be fewer reports from D.C. this year.

Here are a couple of reports from the meeting...

Early plantings estimates...from an article on AgWeb.com:

Looking ahead to the upcoming growing season, USDA projected that U.S. corn plantings would be 86 million acres (same as last year), while soybean acres would jump to a record 77 million.

Plantings to major crops will decline in 2009, with USDA chief economist Joe Glauber noting the tally is projected at 247.6 million acres for the eight major field crops (corn, sorghum, barley, oats, wheat, rice, upland cotton and soybeans).

For corn, Glauber highlighted the struggles facing ethanol production. However, Glauber said about 2 billion gallons has been idled and as much as 15% of ethanol production capacity will be idled in the 2009-10 marketing year. USDA's forecast for corn prices in the 2009-10 marketing year is $3.60, down 30 cents from the midpoint of the 2008-09 marketing year.

On soybeans, production is expected to increase with record plantings and yields will return to trend. Soybean crush is forecast at 1.675 billion reflecting increased soybean exports due to constrained supplies from South America.

Follow the link above for more details.


Technology and global food security
Syngenta CEO Mike Mack gave a presentation on how technology can improve global food security.

"In the face of persistent and growing global challenges, such as rising population, exacerbated by changing diets, limited farmland availability and more erratic climatic conditions, the need to ensure food security and environmental safety is essential. A full modern toolbox including biotechnology, crop protection and seed care is vital to provide solutions," Mack said in this news release.

Here's a good quote: "We have just begun realizing the promise of agricultural technology. As amazing as the products we have already produced are, we are only at the early stages of the learning curve."