US Soybean Acres Could Climb Close To 80 Million

US farmers could plant close to 80 million acres of soybeans this year according to Farm Futures magazine, that's around 3.5 million acres more than the USDA's last estimate in March.

In the run-up to next week's USDA plantings report, they peg 2009 seedings at 79.631 million acres, higher than recent estimates from Informa Economics of 78.869 million acres, and Allendale's 78.484 million. Back in March the USDA forecast soybean plantings at 76.024 million.

As with Informa, but unlike Allendale, a switch from corn is responsible for most of these extra acres, US farmers reduced their intended corn plantings by 2.5 million acres say Farm Futures.

They peg the coming season's corn area at 82.47 million acres, compared to the USDA’s March estimate of 84.986 million. Informa say corn acreage will come in at 83.111 million, whilst Allendale go for a much larger 84.775 million.

As well as reduced corn seedings, spring wheat plantings are also seen lower by Farm Futures as the wet spring weather frustrated farmers' attempts to get a timely crop into the ground. Spring wheat will occupy 12.86 million acres this year they say, that's 3.3% lower than the USDA's forecast in March of 13.304 million acres.