Market News & Headlines >> USDA Sees Soybean Acreage down 4.7%

USDA on Thursday projected that U.S. producers will plant 3.8% more acreage to corn and 4.7% less to soybeans this spring. 

At the agency’s annual Outlook Forum in Washington D.C., USDA Chief Economist Robert Johansson projected U.S. corn plantings for 2019 at 92.5 million acres, up from last year’s estimated 89.1 million and forecast soybean plantings at 85.0 million acres, down from 2018’s 89.2 million. 

The USDA corn acreage forecast was toward the high end of trade expectations, which averaged 91.5 million acres, according to a survey of analysts by Reuters News Service. The USDA soybean acreage forecast was toward the low end of trade expectations that averaged 86.1 million acres. 

U.S. all-wheat seedings for 2019 are projected to be 47.0 million acres, down from 47.8 million in 2018 due primarily to poor planting conditions in a number of states, Johansson said. That forecast was just below the average of trade estimates, which was 47.2 million acres. 

Combined corn, soybean and wheat area is projected by USDA to fall to 224.0 million acres from 226.1 million in 2018. 

USDA projects a modest increase of 151,000 acres in cotton seedings to 15.3 million acres despite softening prices, Johansson said.