Next week the United States Department of Agriculture will release the Prospective Plantings Report. It is a survey of more than 80,000 producers that tallies what each expects to plant this year.
The corn and soybean acreage estimate is widely anticipated. USDA’s own numbers from February are for about 90 million soybean acres and 92 million corn acres. Those are figures Iowa State Extension’s Chad Hart says he can get behind.
“Corn holding above 90. Put it at 92 million acres. Put beans at around 90. Reflecting what we have seen as a shift in the way farmers approach the crops that they grow now. Beans have been that more attractive option over the last decade and what USDA did was to put itself in a position where, when I look at the private estimates, USDA is playing in the middle.”
The Prospective Plantings Report, which again is the result of more than 80,000 farmer surveys, will be released next Wednesday, March 31, at 11am central time.
