Soybeans Overtake Corn in USDA Acreage Report

Soybean planted acreage topped corn for the first time since 1983 as the USDA released its Planted Acreage Report on Friday.  Soybean acreage is 89.6 million acres.  That’s actually one percent lower than last year as planted acres are either down or unchanged in 14 of the 31 biggest soybean states.  Corn acres are also down one percent from last year, coming in at 89.1 million acres.  Corn acres are down or unchanged in 31 of the 48 states in the USDA survey.

All wheat acres are up 4% from last year, coming in at 47.8 million acres.  Cotton acres are estimated at 13.5 million, 7% higher than in 2017. USDA also released its Quarterly Grain and Oilseed Stocks Report on Friday.

It showed a lot of soybeans in storage, coming in at 1.22 billion bushels, 26% higher than last year. On-farm soybean stocks were 13% higher than last year, while off-farm stocks were 33% higher. Corn stocks were estimated at 5.3 billion bushels, 1% higher than the same time in 2017. More corn has moved off the farm as the current on-farm stocks were three percent lower than last year. Old crop all-wheat stocks came in at 1.1 billion bushels, seven percent lower than in 2017.

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