Industry experts have been predicting farmers may make a shift to planting more corn acres this spring due to tighter supplies and cut back on soybeans. However, recent reports say that President Donald Trump’s tariffs may mean America’s farmers might not make that shift after all.
Bloomberg says levies on some products from Canada, Mexico, and China have shifted a key market indicator in favor of soybeans. Farmers need more inputs to raise corn than soybeans, and tariffs may make inputs like fertilizer much more expensive.
An Iowa farmer told Bloomberg he’s considering scrapping the idea of more corn and fewer soybeans than usual this year. The corn-to-soy ratio is a key indicator of what farmers intend to plant in the spring and is currently about 2.2. That’s up from the low of 2.04 on February 19. A ratio of 2.5 or more means farmers tend to favor soybeans over corn.
