Dr. Christopher Hurt, professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University, told the audience during a recent WATT Global Media webinar that soil moisture levels in the major grain producing areas of the United States are good and relatively warm weather is resulting in good early progress getting crops in the ground.
Farmers have told the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that they intended to plant 93.6 million acres of corn this crop year, which represents a 6-percent increase from last year. If realized, the corn crop would be the third largest total acreage planted in corn in the United States since 1944.
Most of the increased acreage would come from ground that had previously been planted in wheat. Dr. Hurt said that he did not expect the full 93.6 million acres to be planted in corn and that some of that land will be used for soybeans instead. Hurt estimated that closer to 91.1 million acres will be planted in corn and that around 2 million more acres will be planted is soybeans than the planting intentions submitted by farmers, which was 82.2 million acres.
Hurt projects a U.S. farm price for corn of $3.60 per bushel for the 2016-2017 crop year representing a $0.05 per bushel increase over the last crop year. USDA’s preliminary projection for the 2016-2017 farm price for corn is $3.45 per bush.
Hurt also projects an average farm price for soybeans of $8.80 per bushel and a Decatur high-protein soybean meal price of $300 per ton for the 2016-2017 crop year. This represents a $15 per ton increase over the last crop year, and is $25 per ton higher than USDA’s preliminary projection, Hurt said.
