CHICAGO (Reuters) — U.S. farmers plan to sow 87.25 million acres of soybeans this spring, the most on record, while paring corn acreage to 88.34 million, according to a producer survey released on Wednesday by Farm Futures magazine.
The soybean figure is up 4.2 percent from the 83.7 million acres seeded in 2014. The survey’s corn figure is down 2.5 percent from 2014 plantings of 90.6 million acres, and would represent the smallest corn acreage since 2010.
“Growers are interested in preserving cash, with farmers in most areas of the country ready to jump on the soybean bandwagon,” Bryce Knorr, Farm Futures market analyst, said in a statement. “This was especially true down into the Delta, where cotton should lose acres,” Knorr said.
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The magazine’s survey of 1,297 farmers in 41 states pegged 2015 cotton seedings at 9.4 million acres, down 15 percent from last year.
The survey projected plantings of spring wheat (other than durum) at 13.4 million acres, up from 13.025 million last year, and durum wheat seedings at 1.6 million acres, up from 1.4 million in 2014. Prices for durum, used to make pasta, have risen due to poor-quality U.S. and Canadian harvests in 2014.
Farm Futures forecast total wheat plantings at 55.6 million acres, down 2.1 percent from 2014. The survey put seedings of winter wheat at 40.6 million acres, above the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Jan. 12 forecast of 40.5 million, but down from 42.4 million acres planted in 2014.
Sorghum plantings were seen rising 18 percent to 8.4 million acres, reflecting strong demand for the feed grain from China.
The USDA is scheduled to release its 2015 planting intentions report on March 31, based on a survey of more than 80,000 producers.
