USDA's March soybean crush report disappoints.

In most cases USDA's monthly report on soybean crushing does not get much interest. NOPA already released their numbers for March. But we've seen NOPA and USDA numbers diverge a little recently. That was seen again today.

USDA reported 203.7 million bushels of soybeans processed in March. That was under the 206 estimate. It is still over last year's level, +2.9%, but that is expected. Bears could not it is a bit of a miss from the March NOPA number that was +5.7% from last year.

September - March US crush has now totaled 1.373 billion bushels, +5.0% year/year. With USDA's current 2.300 billion bushel goal only +4.0% for the year, we are ahead of their goal. The April - August period only needs to run +2.5%.

If the remainder of the year is +4.0% then we'll exceed USDA's current goal by 14 million bushels. A +5.0 to +7.0% pace would suggest an overage of 23 - 41. Crush increases are sorely needed for soybeans. Export sales remain below USDA hopes.

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