Informa Predicts More Beans In ’09
December 15, 2008 Informa Economics expects U.S. soybean acreage to rise in 2009, coupled with decreases in corn and wheat acreage.
Informa Economics’ latest acreage survey forecasts 2009 soybean acreage in the U.S. at 81.4 million acres. That’s 5.6 million acres above the 2008 acreage and also 4.2 million above Informa’s November forecast.
Corn and wheat acreage in the U.S. is seen falling in 2009, with corn acreage estimated at 82.3 million acres, 3.6 million below 2008 acreage and 4.5 million below November’s estimate, according to Informa. Both the eastern and western Corn Belts are expected to decrease corn acreage by more than 1 million acres each.
Informa projects total planted acreage for the 20 major crops in the U.S. to be about 314.45 million acres, up 500,000 from the 2008 total. A portion of the increase is seen coming from a 1.2-million-acre drop in land in the Conservation Reserve Program; about one-half of that land is expected to go back to crop production. There’s also an anticipated decline in soybean double-cropping due to lower wheat seedings in soft-red-producing states.
USDA will release its winter wheat seedings estimates on Jan. 12 and its Prospective Plantings report will follow in March.
(Source: DTN)
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