USDA: Soybean plantings seen at record high despite ample stocks

By Mark Weinraub

WASHINGTON, March 31 (Reuters) – Soybean futures fell and corn rose following the USDa report that said U.S. farmers plan to seed a record amount of soybean acreage this spring, even with supplies trending near all-time highs.

Growers will dial back their corn seedings this spring despite signs of firm demand as record stocks have cast a bearish tone over the futures and cash markets this year, threatening profitability for farmers.

The U.S. Agriculture Department said in its prospective plantings report that U.S. soybean plantings were expected at 89.482 million acres. If realized, that would top last year’s soybean acreage of 83.433 million, which is the biggest to date. In a pre report Reuters poll, analysts, on average had expected 88.214 million acres.

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Corn plantings were seen falling 4.3 percent to 89.996 million acres. Analysts had expected 90.969 million.

“It is a bearish report for beans on all sides, the stocks are higher and the switch away from corn was bigger than anyone figured,” said Jack Scoville, analyst at The Price Futures Group.

Wheat seedings were seen at 46.059 million acres, down from 50.154 million last year and the lowest on record. On average, analysts expected 46.139 million wheat acres.

Area planted to spring wheat for 2017 is estimated at 11.3 million acres, down three percent from 2016. Of this total, about 10.6 million acres are hard red spring wheat. The intended durum planted area for 2017 is estimated at two million acres, down 17 percent from the previous year.

On the supply front, USDA said that domestic soybean stocks as of March 1 stood at 1.735 billion bushels, the second biggest on record and the biggest March 1 reading since 1.787 billion bu. in 2007. A year ago, soybean stocks were 1.531 billion bu..

Corn stocks as of March 1 were a record 8.616 billion bu., topping the 8.248 billion bu. reported in March 1987. A year ago, corn stocks were 7.822 billion bu.

USDA said that users burned through a record 3.770 billion bu. of corn from Dec. 1 to March 1. The soybean drawdown during that time was 1.164 billion bu., the third biggest ever but below comparable periods of 2015 and 2016.

Wheat stocks stood at 1.655 billion bu., the biggest since 1988, and up from 1.372 billion bu. a year ago.

Analysts, on average, had expected soybean stocks of 1.684 billion bu., corn stocks of 8.534 billion bu. and wheat stocks of 1.627 billion bu.

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