USDA’s newest set of grain export data, out Thursday morning and covering the week through August 11, held mixed but mostly bullish numbers for traders to digest. Wheat sales were largely disappointing, falling to a marketing-year low and failing to match trade guesses. In contrast, new crop corn tallies were relatively strong, and new crop soybean sales exceeded the entire range of analyst estimates.

Old crop corn sales came in at 3.9 million bushels, and new crop sales came in at 29.5 million bushels, for a total of 33.4 million bushels. That was toward the higher end of trade estimates, which ranged between 11.8 million and 43.3 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2021/22 marketing year are still moderately below last year’s pace, with 2.273 billion bushels.

Corn export shipments trended 33% below the prior four-week average, with 24.5 million bushels. China was the No. 1 destination, with 10.8 million bushels. Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, Panama and Honduras rounded out the top five.

Sorghum exports only reached 460,000 bushels last week. That grain is bound for China, Mexico and Japan. Cumulative totals for the 2021/22 marketing year are running slightly ahead of last year’s pace, with 270.8 million bushels.

Old crop soybean sales reached 3.6 million bushels, and new crop sales climbed to 47.9 million bushels, for a total of 51.5 million bushels. That easily exceeded the entire range of trade guesses, which came in between 7.3 million and 34.9 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2021/22 marketing year are still slightly behind last year’s pace, with 2.039 billion bushels.

Soybean export shipments shifted 19% above the prior four-week average, to 25.4 million bushels. China was the No. 1 destination, with 10.5 million bushels. Mexico, the Netherlands, South Korea and Spain filled out the top five.

Wheat export sales fell to a marketing-year low of 7.6 million bushels last week. That was also below all analyst estimates, which ranged between 9.2 million and 23.9 million bushels. Cumulative totals for the 2021/22 marketing year have started off moderately below last year’s pace, with 127.1 million bushels.

Wheat export shipments were a bit better, trending 1% above the prior four-week average to 12.8 million bushels. The Philippines topped all destinations, with 3.2 million bushels. Mexico, Brazil, Japan and Portugal rounded out the top five.

Click here to see more results from USDA’s latest report, which covers August 5 through August 11.