At almost $6 new-crop corn, I doubt it’s a big surprise that when planters pull into the field this spring, they’ll likely have more corn in those seed boxes than soybeans. Barring any unforeseen shakeup in the market, that’s what economists like Darrel Good at the University of Illinois predict, too.
To meet demand, he claims planted corn acres would need to be a minimum of 90.3 million acres, or 2.1 million more than planted in 2010. For soybeans, planted acres would need to be near 78.5 million, or 1.1 million more than planted in 2010.
Wheat and cotton are also looking for more acres. The debate over where the acres are going to come from is heating up.
To check the pulse on planting intentions this spring, Corn & Soybean Digest surveyed online readers about their plans. According to our readers, we’ll see about a 7% decrease in soybean acres this year. The majority of those acres will be converted to corn. Our survey also shows that 31% of you plan to increase your corn acres over last year.
If you farm more than 2,000 acres, you’re more apt to increase those corn acres than smaller operations. Larger farms are also planning to decrease wheat acres and increase the size of their operation where they’re able to increase both corn and soybean acres.
For a closer look at survey results, please turn to page 8 for the story, “More Corn, Fewer Beans.” There you’ll see a more in-depth look at the survey plus a five-year comparison of early USDA planting intentions vs. what actually got planted. You can go to www.cornandsoybeandigest.com and also see the full survey.