Prospective Plantings Report Shows More Corn, Fewer Soybeans
Betty Resnick
Economist
Chad Smith
Associate News Service Editor, NAFB
The USDA’s Prospective Plantings Report is the first official survey of farmers for the upcoming growing season. Chad Smith has details.
Smith: The USDA’s Prospective Plantings Report showed farmers intend to plant more corn and cut back on soybean acres. Betty Resnick, an economist for the American Farm Bureau Federation, breaks down the numbers.
Resnick: As expected, many farmers are making the switch to corn, with corn acres expected up over five percent from last year at 95.3 million acres. If realized, this would be the third-largest corn acreage on record since 1944 and the largest since 2013. Cotton saw the biggest drop, falling 12 percent to 9.9 million acres. Soybeans are also expected down from last year, falling to 83.5 million acres, which was slightly under trade estimates in the February outlook.
Smith: Resnick says there are several factors likely behind the change in planting plans for 2025.
Resnick: I think this year might have even more uncertainty than normal around the quickly escalating trade war and the big question marks in the biofuel policy space. These dual concerns and uncertainties with sliding prices as well for soybeans, I think, led to some of the significant drop in soybean acres, and the cotton profitability picture has been pretty bleak recently, and it’s definitely also showing up in the big drop in the percentage basis of cotton acres.
Smith: The Grain Stocks Report came out at the same time and didn’t contain many surprises.
Resnick: While corn and rough rice stocks are slightly down from this time last year, soybeans are up about three-and-a-half percent, and wheat is up significantly at nearly 14 percent. Both of these reports kind of set the stage for the year to come, and it will certainly be an interesting year in general.
Smith: Stay tuned to fb.org for an upcoming Market Intel with more info. Chad Smith, Washington.
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