Informa Economics is predicting that soybeans will take away a significant number of acres from corn and wheat during the 2017 planting season. They project the number of acres planted to corn will drop just over 3.5 million acres from this year’s levels to 90.9 million acres in 2017, a 3.7 percent drop. Early Informa projections for the 2017 corn crop are 14.2 billion bushels, with an average yield of 170 bushels per acre. Informa expects soybean acreage to climb 4.7 million acres from 2016 levels to a record 88.4 million acres, which is a 5.7 percent rise. Informa’s early predictions for the soybean crop are 4.1 billion bushels based on a yield of 47.2 bushels per acre.
Informa is also predicting the number of wheat seedings will drop to its lowest level since 1970, right at 48.9 million acres. The company estimates wheat farmers will harvest 35.4 million acres in 2017.
Source: NAFB News Service