U.S. corn acreage reaches 10-year high

U.S. farmers planted the most corn in 10 years and cut back on soybeans as dry weather in the Midwest allowed them to allocate more acres to corn, a government report said. The USDA’s annual planted acreage report showed that farmers planted 94.096 million acres (38 million hectares) of corn, up 6.2% from a year earlier. Analysts had expected the report to show 91.853 million acres (37.2 million hectares) of corn.

The soybean area fell by 4.5% to 83.505 million acres (33.8 million hectares), well below market expectations of 87.673 million acres (35.5 million hectares).

In a separate report, the US Department of Agriculture reported that wheat stocks in the US as of June 1 amounted to 580 million bushels (15.9 million tons), which is 17.0% less than a year earlier and the lowest level since 2008. Corn stocks were at a 9-year low of 4.106 billion bushels (101.6 million tons), down 5.6% from a year earlier, while soybean stocks fell 17.7% to 796 million bushels (21.7 million tons).

Tags: USA, corn