Soybean futures bounded higher on Thursday following the USDA report, which surprised the market as USDA lowered its estimate for the 2016 harvest. Traders on average had expected an increase in the crop size.

USDA as expected did trim the corn crop to 15.15 billion bushels from its December number of 15.23 billion.

Winter wheat planted acreage dropped to 32.4 million, the lowest in more than 100 years and down from the 36.14 million a year ago.

Listen to the report using the audio link on this page.

Farm Futures Senior Editor Bob Burgdorfer comes to Penton Farm Progress with experience as a reporter covering grain markets and other global news with Reuters, Inc. A journalism graduate from Kansas State University, Bob has also worked at daily newspapers and Knight-Ridder as a commodity reporter, covering grains and livestock. He has earned five writing awards for his coverage of Mad Cow Disease, immigration issues and other international breaking news stories.

For more corn, wheat and soy news, commodity marketing recommendations and daily commodity charts, subscribe to Farm Futures' free e-newsletter, Farm Futures Daily, and keep up during the day with Farm Futures on Twitter.