First US area survey has corn the big loser as soy area hits record

One of the first crop survey reports to give an insight into the planting intentions of US farmers has signalled that soybean acreage is likely to expand as corn acreage falls, the brokerage Allendale has revealed.

Based on its two-week survey of US farmers, spanning 27 key states, Allendale identified a substantial preference for soybean planting, which is likely to see acreage rising to a new record of 92.1 million acres

For corn, the acreage is projected at 88.5 million acres, below most trade expectations and the lowest in three years. 

The USDA at its annual Agriculture Forum held in February, said it expected the acreage of both soybeans and corn to tie at 90 million acres for both.

Based on the acreage revealed in the survey, Allendale is anticipating corn production of 14.145 billion bushels, with soybeans at 4.429 billion and all wheat at 1.892 billion bushels.

That compares with March WASDE estimates of 14.6 billion bushels, 4.39 billion bushels, and 1.74 billion bushels respectively.

The survey also compared year-on-year percentages of old crops sales, putting corn very slightly ahead at 65.3% as of March 2018, versus 65% in March 2017.

Soybeans and wheat both lag the previous year, with soybean at 85%, down 1.6 percentage points, and wheat at 86.2%, down 4.8 percentage points.

New crop sales are ahead across all three, however, with wheat well ahead at 20.3%, up from 8.5% in 2017.

Corn new crop sales are at 13.4%, up 9 percentage points with soybeans at 28.7%, a rise of 0.7 of a percentage point.