Survey Indicates US Will Boost Corn Acres But Reduce Soy Acreage

Currently, the US is the world’s largest exporter of corn and soybeans. Unfortunately, the US may be the largest exporter of both of these crops but domestic inventories before the 2011 harvest of corn are now less than half of the 1.708 billion bushels on hand before the 2010 harvest.

Allendale Inc., a research and agricultural broker firm, conducts a survey of farmers every March to determine how many acres of corn and soybeans that they intend to plant.

In light of the outcome of this research, Rich Nelson, from Allendale Inc., is predicting that the US’ reserves may rise to 950 million bushels before the 2012 harvest. This will be primarily because higher yields and an increase in planting will offset the increased demand for ethanol production. Farmers from the US are scheduled to increase corn planting by 3.7% in 2011.

According to Nelson, corn will probably be sown on 3.3 million acres less this year, from 88.192 million acres in 2010 to 91.492 million in 2011. On the other hand, soybean planting could possibly drop by over a quarter of a million acres in 2011, from 77.404 million in 2010 to 77.144 million. This is primarily because of the forecasted market.

According to the University of Illinois, farmers are expected to earn, in parts of the Midwest, up to $157 more on each acre of corn than on soybeans. The Midwest is the main growing region in the US. In Chicago, corn futures have risen 77% over last year, which is the highest price since July 2008.

(Source: http://ewireinformer.com/survey-indicates-us-will-boost-corn-acres-but-reduce-soy-acreage-341459.html)