U.S. farmers will grow their second-largest soybean crop ever this year, and the third-largest corn crop, according to the USDA’s revised projections of spring planting. In the opening day of its Outlook Forum, the department projected corn plantings of 89 million acres and soybeans at 83.5 million acres. That’s 1 million more acres of corn than was projected in December and 500,000 fewer acres of soybeans. It would put soybean plantings just below the record 83.7 million acres of 2014.
When combined with expected abandonment rates and yields, the USDA projections point to a corn crop of 13.6 billion bushels and 3.8 billion bushels of soybeans. Department analysts will flesh out the projections during sessions on Friday at the Forum.
The 2015 corn crop would follow back-to-back record harvests, accounting for the three largest U.S. crops on record. The gargantuan crops would keep U.S. inventories high for the next couple of years at a minimum.
The USDA says season-average crop prices will be higher than appeared likely at the end of 2014. It raised the projected corn and wheat prices by 10 cents each, to $3.50 a bushel for corn and $5.10 a bushel for wheat, and soybeans by 50 cents, to $9 a bushel.
The department has forecast net farm income will drop to its lowest level since 2007 due to declining commodity prices. But it says the agricultural boom that began in 2006 allowed producers to solidify their financial standing. The agricultural debt-to-asset ratio is expected to rise to 10.9 percent this year, the third-lowest reading since the USDA began calculating the ratio in 1960.
Land values are forecast to fall by less than 1 percent in 2015, says USDA. “Producers in some regions with high cash rents and falling prices face some adjustments as they maneuver to cover operating costs.”