MarketsFarm — Farmers in the United States seeded more corn and less soybeans than earlier intentions in 2023, according to updated acreage data Friday from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Total corn plantings in the country were estimated by USDA at 94.1 million acres, which was a million acres above the top end of trade estimates and well above the 88.6 million acres seeded in 2022. The corn plantings would mark the third-highest acreage base to the crop since 1944.
The increase in corn area came at the expense of soybeans, which saw area fall to 83.5 million acres from 87.5 million a year ago. Average trade guesses had been for similar planted area on the year.
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Meanwhile, quarterly stocks of both crops came in below average trade estimates and the year ago level, at 4.106 billion bushels for corn and 796 million for soybeans.
The wheat numbers saw planted area increase to 49.6 million acres, from 45.7 million in 2022. Of that total, spring wheat at 11.1 million acres was up by about 500,000 from an earlier estimate and compares with the 10.8 million acres of spring wheat seeded in the U.S. in 2022.
Quarterly wheat stocks in the country came in at 580 million bushels, which was at the low end of trade expectations and well off the 698 million bushels of wheat on hand in the country at June 1, 2022.
— Phil Franz-Warkentin is an associate editor/analyst with MarketsFarm in Winnipeg.
