Market News & Headlines >> USDA Sees Corn, Soy Acres Up in 2018

U.S. farmers are expected to expand plantings of both corn and soybeans slightly next spring while further reducing wheat seedings, according to long-term projections released by USDA’s Office of the Chief Economist on Tuesday. 

USDA projects farmers will plant 91.0 milli Seeson acres of corn in the 2018-19 crop year, up from 90.4 million for 2017/18, and sees producers also planting 91.0 million acres of soybeans, surpassing this year’s record of 90.2 million. U.S. all-wheat plantings for 2018/19 are projected at 45.0 million acres, down from 46.0 million in 2017/18, which would be a 99-year low if realized. 

Despite the higher corn and soybean planted acreage, USDA forecasts next year’s production for both crops will be slightly lower than its current estimates of 2017/18 production due to lower yields. 

USDA projects the 2018 corn crop at 14.520 billion bushels on a U.S. yield of 173.5 bushels per acre compared with this year’s expected crop of 14.578 billion bushels on a yield of 175.4 bushels. USDA sees 2018 soybean production at 4.360 billion bushels on a U.S. yield of 48.4 bushels per acre, compared with this year’s expected production of 4.425 billion bushels on a yield of 49.5 bushels. 

USDA will release its complete Agricultural Projections to 2027 report in February 2018. USDA’s long-term agricultural projections are a departmental consensus on a long-run representative scenario for the agricultural sector for the next decade. The World Agricultural Outlook Board chairs an Interagency Agricultural Projections Committee to coordinate this activity and improve the quality and consistency of projections.