Agricultural News
Prospective Plantings Report Shows Slight Increase in Wheat Acres
Thu, 28 Mar 2013 12:18:11 CDT
All planted wheat acres came in right at the average trade estimate of 56.4 million acres, a one percent increase from last year, according to the recently-released USDA Prospective Plantings report. Winter wheat area, at 42 million acres, is up two percent from last year and a slight increase from January's Winter Wheat Seedings report. Acreage increases were largely in the soft red winter wheat growing areas.
Spring wheat acres rose three percent to 12.7 million acres, but the USDA expects farmers to plant eighteen percent less durum wheat this year. Its acreage estimate of 1.75 million acres fell below the range of pre-report expectations.
Corn acreage matched the average trade guess at 97.28 million acres. The USDA says farmers intend to plant slightly more acres to corn than last year, making acreage the largest since 1936 when an estimated 102 million acres were planted to corn.
Soybean stocks totaled 999 million bushels, within the range of trade estimates but slightly on the high side. It's a 27 percent decrease from last March.
This year's soybean acreage will be 77.13 million acres, lower than traders expected and slightly lower than last year.
Farmers reported they intend to plant 7.62 million acres of sorghum, a 22 percent increase over last year, with Kansas and Texas accounting for 77 percent of the expected increase.
USDA expects farmers to plant 10 million acres of cotton, a 19 percent drop from last year. If realized, planted area in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Oklahoma will set record lows.
Some of the largest percentage increases come from added plantings in Arkansas, Mississippi and other Delta states as farmers switch from cotton to corn. USDA expects farmers in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas, South Dakota and Nebraska to plant slightly less corn than last year.
The Prospective Plantings report is available by clicking here.
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