Corn and soybeans gained in Chicago ahead of the U.S. Department of Agriculture report that may show the agency cutting estimates on the nation’s harvests as hot weather curbs yields. December-delivery corn rose 0.8 percent to $6.9375 per bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade at 2:58 p.m. in Singapore, while soybeans for November delivery climbed 1.3 percent to $13.19 per bushel. U.S. farmers may harvest 13.079 billion bushels of corn this year, lower than the USDA’s July estimate of 13.47 billion bushels, according to the average estimate of 31 analysts in a Bloomberg News survey. Soybean output may be 3.184 billion bushels, smaller than USDA’s 3.225 billion bushel forecast, the survey showed. The USDA will release the latest outlook at 8:30 a.m. in Washington today. “Expectations that the USDA report will show yield reduction in the U.S. is a bullish factor in the market,” Hiroyuki Kikukawa, general manager for research at IDO Securities Co., said from Tokyo. Ethanol production in the U.S. rose to 908,000 barrels a day last week, the highest level in nine weeks, according to an Energy Department report. Production of the biofuel that’s mixed with gasoline was forecast by the USDA last month to use about 38 percent of the nation’s corn crop. Corn yields in the U.S., which accounts for 39 percent of the global harvest and more than half of world exports, may average 155.4 bushels per acre, the survey showed, less than the government forecast for 158.7 bushels. Soybean yields may drop to 42.9 bushels an acre, smaller than the 43.4 bushels forecast by the USDA. Wheat for December delivery in Chicago also rose, gaining as much as 1.5 percent to $7.30 per bushel. To contact the reporter on this story: Luzi Ann Javier in Singapore at ljavier@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole in Singapore at jpoole4@bloomberg.net

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