April 1, 2008
USDA drops 2008 corn planting forecast, sees higher soy acres
After last year's record corn production, US farmers will be planting 8 percent less acres with corn and more with soy in 2008 than was forecast in February, the USDA said Monday.
A little over a month ago, the USDA raised this year's forecast for corn planting to 90 million acres, up from an earlier 88-million-acre prediction.
The USDA has now lowered that forecast to 86 million acres in its Prospective Plantings report, which was released Monday.
The cost of farming corn has risen higher than expected, the USDA said, while prices for other commodities like soy have risen.
Corn planting will remain at historically high levels and prices will stay strong due in part to the continued expansion in ethanol production, the department explained.
Yet farmers will still be planting less acres with corn than they did in 2007 when 93.6 million acres were seeded, the USDA said.
Indiana and Minnesota are both expected to drop 800,000 acres of corn from their record highs established last year, according to the department.
The projected drop in corn planting, though, is contrasted with a new prediction for a leap in soy planting.
Acreage increases are expected in Iowa and Nebraska, up 1.25 million acres and 1.2 million acres from 2007, respectively, the USDA reported.
Increases of at least 800,000 acres are also expected in Indiana, Minnesota and South Dakota.
The new forecast for US soy planting in 2008 is 74.8 million acres, the USDA said, up from the February 22 forecast of 71 million acres in 2008 as well as the 63.6 million acres that farmers planted in 2007.
Last year many soy growers switched from soy to corn as ethanol expansion strongly increased the demand for corn, the USDA said. This year, though, many farmers are replacing corn acres for soy acres because of strong prices and demand.
The USDA said if the current forecast holds true, the soy planted acreage in Kansas, New York and Pennsylvania will be the largest on record.
