Friday’s Department of Agriculture prospective plantings report suggests that U.S. farmers will plant four percent less corn this year compared to 2016 while planting seven percent more soybeans. The report says farmers are expected to plant 90 million acres of corn and 89.5 million acres of soybeans in 2017. The estimate for soybeans again represents record acreage. Farmers are also projected to plant 46.1 million acres of wheat, down eight percent from last year. If realized, it would mark the lowest wheat acreage since the U.S. began keeping records in 1919. In the Quarterly Stocks reports, USDA pegged corn stocks 
at 8.62 billion bushels, up 10 percent from a year ago. Soybean stocks were pegged at 1.73 billion bushels, up 13 percent from last year. All-wheat stocks were projected at 1.66 billion bushels, up 21 percent from a year ago. Also in the prospective plantings report, USDA projects 12.2 million planted cotton acres, up 21 percent from last year and the highest planted acres since 2012. USDA also says farmers will plant 5.8 million acres of sorghum, down 14 percent from last year.
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting news service.