URBANA, Ill. — Friday morning the United States Department of Agriculture will release the annual acreage survey. Todd Gleason has more from the University of Illinois on what to expect.
The agricultural economist at the University of Illinois tasked with tracking acreage expectations says he thinks there will be 91.8 million acres of corn planted in the United States this season. Todd Hubbs has soybean acreage pegged at 85.7 million acres.
Hubbs: I am getting a little bit nervous about soybean acreage. We’ve seen the prices, through the early part of this year, a little bit higher relative to corn based on the ending stocks. I could see some farmers throughout the corn belt, particularly if they have problems with field work and with fertilizer prices the way they are, deciding maybe to plant soybean acreage.
This would be especially true if planting in the Midwest were to be delayed by poor early season weather conditions. Clearly, Friday’s USDA predictions will change as the season passes, it always does, and one of the wild cards will be how many acres won’t get planted this year. Officially those acres are called “prevented planting”. Most just say prevent plant for short. Todd Hubbs thinks there could be a lot more of them this season.
Hubbs: I think you could see prevent plant higher this year due to the flooding we are already sadly seeing in large parts of the western corn belt and the huge snowpack in that region. The National Weather Service is projecting flooding for the upper Mississippi River Basin. So, the idea that prevent plant will be higher than the 1.9 million acres we had last year, I think is true. I am looking at around 3 to 3.5 million acres as a projection but it will come down to spring weather.
Todd Hubbs will take up prevent plant acres during a post-USDA report webinar planned for Friday at 2pm central time. Visit the Farm-Doc-Daily website for details on how to register. USDA’s Prospective Plantings report is due at 11am central time this Friday morning (March 29, 2019).
— Todd Hubbs, Agricultural Economist – University of Illinois
Todd Gleason, farm broadcaster
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