Pipeline Supply refers to the minimum number of bushels or tons of a commodity that are in transit to processing facilities and users to maintain a steady flow of supplies to users. It is the amount of a given commodity in the trucks leaving the farm to the processor, in the trains and barges moving to an export facility or processor, in the processor bins, in the feed delivery trucks, feed bins on the farms, and in the feeders of the feeding floor.
No one knows exactly how much of a commodity is the pipeline supply, but the US consumes or exports about 12 million bushels of soybeans every day and about 40 million bushels of corn.
Pipeline supply for beans is in the 120 million bushel area and corn pipeline is in the 600 million bushels area. By the end of August, old crop soybean supplies will most definitely be down to pipeline supplies or less.
Highlights
Many areas of the Corn Belt received rain Friday into Saturday morning and the weather forecast has improved. For those who did not receive rain this weekend, crops took a beating. The question is how much yield damage has been done? Some (including the USDA) are saying this corn crop will be a record yield and beans close to it. We do not see any way the nation’s corn will yield more than last year’s 173.4 bu. USDA says we will harvest corn for grain on 7.1 million more acres than last year. Those extra 7.1 million acres are not as productive as the 79.2 million acres harvested in 2022. Stands across the Corn Belt are not nearly as uniform population and maturity as last year’s crop. There was dry weather in 2022, for sure, but it was drier in 2023 and there was less subsoil moisture over a high percentage of the Corn Belt this year. The corn crop is made in July and July is over. The corn crop has healed as much as it is going to. Yield losses are real.