Chicago | Reuters — The U.S. Agriculture Department on Friday forecast that U.S. farmers will raise corn plantings and cut back on soybean acreage in the 2016-17 marketing year.
USDA’s Office of the Chief Economist estimated that farmers would seed 90.5 million acres of corn during the spring, 2.1 million more than they did in 2015-16. Soybean acreage was seen falling to 82 million from 83.2 million.
For production, USDA estimated a 3.785 billion-bushel soybean crop and a 13.9 billion-bushel corn crop.
The government also forecast all wheat acreage of 53 million and a crop of 2.06 billion bushels.
The forecasts are developed by consensus within the USDA on a long-term scenario for the agricultural sector for the next decade. USDA will release its complete report on projections for the next 10 years in February.
— Reporting for Reuters by Mark Weinraub in Chicago.
