soybean futures climbed on monday after the us department of agriculture reduced its 20222023 forecasts on the commodity’s domestic production and yield per acre setting prices up for their highest settlement since june “there was a soybean surprise today with the usda lowering both a harvested and yield estimates” jake hanley managing director and senior portfolio strategist at teucrium told marketwatch the usda cuts its 20222023 us soybean production forecast by 152 million bushels to 4378 billion bushels according to the monthly world agricultural supply and demand estimates report it cited a lower harvested area and yield us harvested area was down 06 million bushels from the august forecast at 866 million acres while us soybean yield forecast was at 505 bushels per acre down 14 bushels from the august forecast the usda report showed “this is the third crop year in a row where us soybean use is expected to exceed production” said hanley the usda forecasts domestic soybean use at 4433 bullion bushels versus production of 4378 billion bushels “this means an even tighter balance sheet with the us soybean stocksuse ratio back at the lowest level in a decade” hanley said the mostactive november soybeans contract s00 sx22 traded at 1485 34 a bushel up 73 12 cents or 52 in chicago a settlement around this level would be the highest since june 22 according to dow jones market data meanwhile analysts got what they were looking for in us corn yields with the usda estimates basically matching the average analyst surveyed by bloomberg he said the government agency forecast domestic corn yield at 1725 bushels per acre down 29 bushels from the august forecast still the one million acres downward revision in the us area harvested estimate to 808 million acres is likely adding additional price support hanley said “i believe the trade will look for the usda to lower yield expectations again in the october report” both the soybean and corn “balance sheets are telling us that we should expect elevated prices for an extended period” he said “it’s impossible to rebuild supplies when usage is outpacing production”