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Market analyst says high input costs driving long-term shift toward more U.S. soybean acreage

The president of AgResource Company says higher costs of production for corn could result in a long-term shift toward more soybean acres in the U.S.

Dan Basse says the soybean market had a positive reaction to the USDA’s March Prospective Plantings Report.

“We saw soybean futures gaining on corn following the report,” he says. “As we ramp up production from the RVO announcement from last Friday, we will need more soybeans for processing. We have rising fertilizer costs and rising corn production costs, which are the second highest on record. Soybeans are just a cheaper crop to plant.”

U.S. farmers are expected to plant 95.3 million acres of corn, 84.7 million acres of soybeans, and 48.3 million acres of wheat this growing season.

He tells Brownfield if realized, planted U.S. wheat acres will be the lowest they’ve been in more than a century.

“We haven’t had a new demand driver for wheat,” he says. “We need what we need for flour milling, but being competitive in the world market has been a struggle. United States exports have been in decline, and this continues to be the case. I don’t think there’s any real change in that going forward.”

Basse says record high input prices, changing weather patterns, and ongoing market uncertainty are expected to further influence planting decisions ahead of the 2026 crop year.

AUDIO: Dan Basse, AgResource Company