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Prospective Plantings Report shows soybeans gaining acres in the West

An agricultural economist with the University of Illinois says the USDA’s Prospective Plantings Report showed an expected increase in farmers’ intentions to plant soybeans this year.

Joe Janzen says the largest gains are in the western Corn Belt.

“There maybe a few more soybean acres coming into production in places like South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, sort of the western half of the Corn Belt.”  He says, “But you might say Michigan and Ohio is kind of anomalous cases where soybean acreage is predicted to go down a little bit.”

In a FarmDoc webinar, he says corn acres are expected to decline equally across major corn producing states.

“A 3.5% decline in U.S. corn planted acreage overall.”  He says, “That’s pretty much in line with the numbers that we’re seeing in Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, other major producing states. At the margins, there may be some places planting a little bit more corn.”

Janzen says increased corn acres in Kansas and Texas could be linked to declining cotton profitability.