(Bloomberg) -- In Kansas, they’re swapping wheat for soybeans. In North Dakota, it’s corn that farmers are ditching in favor of the oilseed.
Those are some of the insights from the U.S. Department of Agriculture annual Prospective Plantings report published Friday. The agency estimates soybean acreage will increase 7.3 percent to a record 89.5 million acres this year. Corn and wheat plantings, meanwhile, are seen lower. Here’s a breakdown of data on the three biggest crops:
SOYBEANS
Farmers switching to soy are being swayed by the better prospects for turning a profit on the crop compared with corn and wheat.
CORN
While higher year-on-year, the USDA’s corn acreage projection trailed estimates.
WHEAT
The total wheat acreage for 2017 is seen falling to the lowest since USDA data began in 1919.
(In an earlier version of this story, the first paragraph was corrected to show some Kansas farmers are switching to soybeans from wheat, not corn.)
To contact the reporter on this story: Dominic Carey in Washington at dcarey5@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Tanzi at atanzi@bloomberg.net, Simon Casey
