As we start yet another month, we have one big topic that we need to talk about and that is the changing of the date to harvest cover crops that were planted on prevent plant acres. Not only was the date changed but the ways that the crops themselves can be harvested. This year producers will be allowed to graze, bale and even chop their forages as early as September 1^st. Changing the date from November 1^st to September 1^st will allow producers to put up better quality forages, as well as not have to fight the snow that Mother Nature is going to provide us with. With the governing body of crop insurance allowing producers to chop the crop put in on PP ground, producers that were unable to plant corn to harvest for corn silage are now allowed to harvest some sort of silage. Hopefully producers will be able to get those crops put up in a timely manner and in good quality, whether they are baling or chopping the crops.

Thursday’s WASDE report came out as an initially bearish report. The USDA raised US ending stocks for both the 18/19 and 19/20 marketing years. The main cause for higher stocks came from the demand side and due to projected less exports for 18/19 and a smaller amount of domestic feed/seed. The export change seems fair, with the US export business taking a hit with an extremely strong Midwest corn end user basis price. Although, after an initial bearish reaction corn futures were able to close $.09 high to sit at $4.44 Sep ’19 futures. A good reaction to a bearish report shows that the trade is already anticipating the US will have to decrease both acres and yield (both were unchanged from the June quarterly stocks report). Regardless of what happens with futures, basis levels have been screaming higher and will likely remain that way until price reaches a point that obtains meaningful producer selling.