The U.S. Department of Agriculture released its Prospective Plantings report for 2008 this morning. Expected corn plantings are down from 2007, while expected acreage figures for wheat and soybeans are both up from last year. Specifically, corn producers expect to plant 86 million acres, down 8% from 2007, soybean producers expect to plant 74.8 million acres, up 18% from last year, and estimates for wheat are at 63.8 million acres, up 6% from 2007. Expected cotton plantings, meanwhile, are down 13% from last year at 9.39 million acres. According to the USDA, the drop in expected corn acreage is due to favorable prices for other crops, high input costs for corn, and crop rotation considerations.
"Because the 2007 season was so unusual due to the historic rise in corn prices, it is more instructive to compare these intentions with five-year averages than against last year's acreage," said DTN grains analyst Elaine Kub in a press statement. On that note, according to DTN both soybeans and corn are expected to receive larger-than-normal plantings, about a four percent increase over the five-year average for both, but the soybean acreage figure is the most bearish because it is more than a half million acres more than the highest pre-report estimates.
Click here to read the full USDA report.
