By Kirk Maltais
U.S. farmers are planning on planting more soybeans than they did last spring, the Agriculture Department said in an annual report.
The USDA published its projections for spring planting on Tuesday, and it expects farmers to plant 84.7 million acres of soybeans this spring. That is up from 81.2 million acres planted last year, according to USDA data, but less than estimates from analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal ahead of the report's release. On average, analysts forecast soybean acres at 85.5 million acres.
For corn, the USDA projects that 95.3 million acres will be planted this spring. That is down from the all-time record high of 98.8 million acres planted last year, but would still be the third-largest area of corn acreage on record. Surveyed analysts had expected planted acreage to land at 94.5 million acres.
Wheat acres were shown falling by more than forecast by analysts, with the USDA reporting 43.8 million acres planted for all varieties of wheat. Analysts on average had expected planting to land at 44.6 million acres.
Following the release of the report at noon EDT, futures trading on the CBOT turned higher, led by soybeans, which went from trading down before the report's release to up 1.2%. Corn is up 0.5%, and wheat rises 2.1%.
In a note following the report's release, Naomi Blohm with Total Farm Marketing called the results "neutral" for grain futures.
Planting season in the U.S. Corn Belt typically begins in April, and can extend into mid-June depending on what kind of weather farmers receive for the season.
Write to Kirk Maltais at kirk.maltais@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
03-31-26 1240ET
