Glacier FarmMedia – As farmers in the United States get ready to plant their crops in 2024, there has been speculation of how much corn and soybeans they will plant.
“Definitely everyone in the industry is talking less corn and more beans”, said Scott Capinegro of Barrington Commodity Brokers in Barrington, Ill. “I think your biggest switch in acres will be…in North Dakota and South Dakota. Illinois and Iowa usually stick to their guns with their crop rotations.”
Capinegro said a couple of new soybean facilities are due to come online in the near future, which should improve the crop’s demand. Added to that is the cost of production for corn, which has eroded its profitability. Also, he pointed out the amount of corn farmers still have.
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Should any price rallies occur in corn, Capinegro said they would likely not last long as the quantity of corn the farmers sell off would meet demand.
However, one cap on potential soybean acres he noted was the size of the cotton crop in the South.
“It’s a little early to tell, but cotton has been on a nice run to the upside,” Capinegro said.
Two firms have recently published their estimates for U.S. plantings in 2024/25. Farm Futures pegged soybean acres to bump up to 84.95 million, while S&P Global forecast 85.5 million. For corn, Farm Futures projected nearly 92.8 million and S&P called for 93 million.
The United States Department of Agriculture reported soybean plantings in 2023/24 came to 83.6 million acres and those for corn came to 94.6 million. Harvested acres were 82.4 million for soybeans and 86.5 million for corn.
— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.
