The chemical and agricultural company DuPont says it expects “a slight year-over-year uptick” in corn plantings in the United States, the world’s largest grower, and Brazil, the No. 3 grower behind China.
Agrimoney quoted DuPont as saying, “Our order book in North America suggests a modest improvement in corn demand at the expense of soybeans in a highly competitive seed market.” DuPont said seed sales were up 2 percent in the closing quarter of 2015 but earnings from seeds and crop protection chemicals were down 30 percent for the year. Two economists from U-Illinois also said they expect U.S. growers will plant more land to corn this year than in 2015.
Economists Darrel Good and Scott Irwin looked at fluctuations since 2007 in plantings of “principal crops,” which range from grains to hay and sugar beets, to determine that a small uptick is likely this year. With growers cutting back on winter wheat, that makes more land available for spring-planted crops, they write at farmdoc daily. “Under that scenario, corn acreage might increase by about 1.0 million acres to 89 million, equal to planting intentions reported in June 2015,” they said. “Similarly, soybean acreage might increase as much as 2 million acres to 84.65 million, 0.5 million less than planting intentions reported in June 2015.”
The USDA projects corn plantings of 90.5 million acres and soybeans at 82 million acres compared to 88 million acres of corn and 82.7 million acres of soybeans in 2015. The agency will release its Prospective Plantings report, based on a survey of growers, on March 31.