After setting back-to-back records for soybean plantings, U.S. farmers indicated in a survey that they will plant more wheat and corn while cutting back on soybeans in 2018, said Farm Futures. Soybeans nearly matched corn, the most widely grown crop in the nation, in acreage this year with farmers believing the oilseed would be more profitable than corn.
In the Farm Futures survey, farmers said they would plant 92.8 million acres of corn, up 2 percent from this year, and 48.1 million acres of wheat, up 5 percent from the smallest plantings since World War One. “Nearly 90 percent of that increase would come in winter wheat seeded this fall,” said Farm Futures. Corn and soybeans are grown side-by-side in many states and often in rotation with each other. The increase in corn area would come at the expense of soybeans, said Farm Futures.
Cotton growers are forecast to harvest the largest crop in 11 years at the same time market prices for the fiber are falling. In the survey, growers said they would pare plantings to 11.7 million acres, a decline of 3 percent, in 2018.
Bryce Knorr, senior grain analyst for Farm Futures, said the estimates of 2018 plantings, made weeks before the fall harvest reaches full stride, “are just a snapshot, one that could fade quickly depending on market conditions.”