A sharp change in the number of corn and soybean crop acres is expected for this year compared to 2012.
The Agriculture Department will be issuing the final 2012 U.S. corn and soybean numbers on January 11. U.S. farmers will plant nearly 98 million acres of corn this year, which is up 0.8 percent from last year. And the soybean acreage is seeing a decline, down 0.5 percent, nearly 77 million acres.
Market analyst Jim Warren with GHS Hedging in Kansas City says the drought and dry weather conditions of the previous year are taking its toll on the number of crops that will be produced this year. He says because of the drought, the latest estimate was just over 122 bushel per acre, whereas last year there was an average of 147.2, so it is being affected.
Warren says last year nationally, there were 12 point 3 billion bushels of corn produced. “For the soybeans last year, 3.09 billion bushels of production and this year the last estimate was 2.9.”
The USDA’s corn and soybean prospective planting numbers will be released on March 28.
AUDIO: Mary Farucci reports. (1:01)