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U.S. soybean plantings could be up five million acres

A grain industry specialist says 2017 U.S. soybean plantings could be as much as five million acres above last year.

Kurt Lensing with AgStar Financial Services tells Brownfield if realized, some of those acres will come at the expense of corn.

“If you look at some of the industry expectations for this report, we’re right at about 91 million acres for corn.  That’s down about 3 million acres from last year.  Soybeans is the big one that people have been talking about, with acres near 88 million, and some estimates all the way up getting close to 90 million acres.”

USDA will release its 2017 Prospective Plantings report Friday at 11am central.

Lensing says unless there’s a strong deviation from pre-report estimates, a volatile market reaction is unlikely.

“I do think a lot of the numbers as far as right around 90 to 91 million acres of corn and 88 million acres of soybeans has factored kind of into the market already.”

Lensing expects the market to focus more on weather conditions as the majority of corn farmers hope to begin planting within the next two weeks.