BOONE, Iowa-U.S. farmers plan to increase their soybean plantings in 2017 to an all-time high, encouraged by robust demand for the oilseed, while reducing corn and wheat acreage, according to a producer survey released by Farm Futures magazine on Tuesday, Aug. 30.
Growers will plant 84.4 million acres of soybeans next spring, up from 83.7 million in 2016, and 93.1 million acres of corn, down from 94.1 million this year, according to the survey, the magazine's first for the upcoming season.
Low prices will prompt farmers to slash wheat area for a fourth straight season to 49.1 million acres, which would be the lowest U.S. all-wheat acreage since 1970, according to the
online survey of 1,225 farmers conducted in late July and early August.
A moderate increase in white wheat seedings will be more than offset by declines in plantings of all other major classes of wheat, the survey showed.
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"Farmers show a tendency to base planting decisions on what worked the previous year, and soybeans were profitable for growers able to take advantage of hedging opportunities this
summer," Bryce Knorr, Farm Futures senior grain market analyst, said in a statement.
"Strong buying from China also provides a much better fundamental underpinning for the market compared to corn and wheat, which lack demand drivers," he said.
The survey also forecast moderate increases in cotton and sorghum acres.
