(Reuters) – U.S. farmers will boost soybean plantings to a record 83.212 million acres this spring and reduce sowings of corn to the lowest in three years, according to a survey of growers released on Thursday by Illinois-based research and brokerage firm Allendale Inc.
The soybean sowings, if realized, would top last year’s plantings of 76.533 million acres as well as the U.S. Agriculture Department’s initial forecast last month of 79.5 million acres, the survey showed. The record for soybean plantings of 77.451 million was set in the 2009/10 marketing season.
USDA will release its annual prospective plantings report that is based on surveys of tens of thousands of farmers on March 31.
Allendale’s survey, based on growers in 28 U.S. states, said farmers would seed 92.349 million acres of corn, down from 95.365 last year but up from USDA’s estimate in February of 92 million acres. The corn plantings would be smallest since the 2011/12 marketing season.
Wheat acreage was pegged at 55.324 million acres, below the USDA estimate last year of 56.156, according to Allendale.
Based on the acreage estimates and trend-line yields, Allendale pegged implied crop production at 13.781 billion bushels of corn, 3.639 billion bushels of soybeans and 2.175 billion bushels of wheat.
