-China aims for stable pig populations, with sow herd below current levels
-USDA reports routine new crop soybean sales to China
-Good rains in U.S. forecast
-Argentine truckers’ strike ends for now
-Chinese corn auction interest remains limited
Decent rains appear on tap for the majority of the corn belt over the coming 7 days. As always, though, verification of the rains is crucial as dryness concerns in some locations persist and crop conditions remain below average. Choppy price action continues as the market awaits next Thursday’s Crop Production and WASDE reports. Our pre-report commentary/analysis can be found on Market Insights at https://portal.rjobrien.com/MarketInsights/Blog/Read/44764.
 China’s ag ministry and other ag-related ministries issued a joint statement regarding procedures for maintaining steady hog production over the coming years. Specifically, the goal is to maintain the nationwide breeding sow herd at around 43 million head through 2025 and not allow it to drop below 40 million at any time. This would actually be below the ag ministry’s latest data showing the sow herd at 45.6 million head at the end of June, which was 102% of the end-2017 level. Moreover, in order to ease pork price fluctuations and to maintain a more steady production environment, China is advising pig farmers to market less productive animals when their sow herd rises more than 5% from the previous year and to increase numbers when the herd is more then 5% below previous year levels.
ï‚· USDA reported the sale of 131k tonnes of new crop, 2021/22, soybeans to China this morning.
 Agroconsult lowered their estimate of Brazil’s safrinha corn crop to 60.9 MMT from 65.3 MMT previously and compares to CONAB last at 67.0 MMT and last year’s 75.1 MMT.
 In this week’s state corn reserve auction, China sold just 39k tonnes of the 270k tonnes offered, comparable to the previous week’s 31k tonnes sold out of 252k tonnes offered as overall interest remains limited. Since auctions began in mid-June, 192k tonnes of the 1.3 MMT offered (15%) have been sold.
 Ongoing wet conditions continue to hamper France’s wheat harvest with 66% of the harvest now complete vs last year’s drought-accelerated 97% and is roughly 11 days behind average. However, decent progress was made over the last week, rising from the previous week’s 47% completion, which was also a solid week in rising from 14% the week prior as hopefully the worst is now past. The remaining crop in the field was rated 74% good/excellent vs 75% last week, but remaining well above last year’s 56% g/e.
 The Argentine truckers’ strike impacting the Bahia Blanca grain port has been lifted with operations returning to normal.
 Ukraine’s winter wheat harvest is 72% complete, with 23.4 MMT harvested so far and an average yield of 4.55 tonnes/hectare (67.7 bu/acre).
The USDA is currently estimating Ukraine’s average wheat yield at 4.18 tonnes/hectare (62.2 bu/acre). At this time last year, 23.1 MMT of wheat had been harvested on 87% of total area.