U.S. farmers said they would plant a record 81.5 million acres of soybeans this spring, putting within reach a record crop that would ease high prices and the tightest supplies in decades. USDA will estimate the results of the late, cold and wet planting season in its Acreage report on Monday, based on a survey of around 70,000 growers.
“For the most part, expectations are that the upcoming forecast of planted acreage will not be smaller than March intentions,” writes economist Darrel Good of U-Illinois at Farmdoc Daily. “If large acreage is confirmed, prospects for a record large soybean crop and a build in stocks during the year ahead will be maintained.”
A survey of analysts and traders found they expect soybean plantings of 82.3 million acres, said Bloomberg. That would be 1 percent more than farmers planned in March and 8 percent more than were sown in 2013. Fifteen percent of farmers responding to an online poll by DTN said they switched to soybeans on some of their land because of planting delays for corn. USDA projects a crop of 3.365 billion bushels, 8 percent larger than the 2009 record.
USDA’s Prospective Plantings report in March tends to under-state soybean plantings. In the past 20 years, the June 30 Acreage report over-stated soybean plantings 13 times. It has a margin of error of 2.1 percent or an average difference of 712,000 acres between the June 30 estimate of soybeans and the final number for plantings.