Grain prices recover on end-of-week short-covering.

After four days of selling in soybeans and three sessions of selling in corn, the Friday recovery is underway as end-user buying steps in with the US dollar softening overnight into the monthly jobs number out this morning. August payrolls came in at 315,000, near the estimates but no stronger than what would anticipate the already planned and anticipated .75% interest rate hike near the end of the month.

The Biden administration is proposing to announce three years of US biofuel blending mandates in mid-November. By law, the EPA must announce its 2023 mandates by November 16. The Biden administration is trying to provide more certainty for the US refinery and biofuel industries and will move to announce three years of mandates to allow for planning and future RIN needs.

French corn ratings declined again yesterday to 47% GD/EX, which is down 2% again from the prior week and the lowest comparable corn rating in over a decade. It’s anticipated that the 2022 EU corn crop may come in near 53 MMTs from early season estimates of 70 MMTs.
The September NASS crop report is out Monday, September 12, and the market will be embracing numerous crop estimates now through next week. StoneX was out yesterday with their surveys, and they put corn at 173.2 BPA with soybeans at 51.8 BPA.

A dry weather pattern will hold across the Central US with limited rainfall for the Plains/Midwest into September 12; the GFS model remains dry for the Central US weather into September 15, while the EU model brings a chance of rain to the W Midwest during the September 9-11th window. The Midwest and Plains will see Sharp falls in soil moisture, which will stress soybeans at the end of their fill in the areas that did not receive rain last week. Currently, no evidence of a Gulf hurricane risks crop yields in LA, MS, or AL. Three tropical storms are expected to turn northward into the Atlantic Ocean.

Live and feeder cattle were higher on Thursday, with a steady outlook offered for the start of today. Cattle markets did finish well off their highs from the early morning rally. The cash trade and late sales in Kansas were quoted at $1 lower from last week at $141. Light trade in Nebraska was $2 lower from earlier week’s business at $143. Box beef values slipped again with choice value down $0.27 and select $1.15 lower. The Actual Slaughter report showed that steer carcass weights continue to climb like a year ago. Steer carcass weights were 904 pounds, most since April, and 1 pound heavier than a year ago. The average heifer carcass weight was 822 pounds, or 2 pounds more than last year.