U.S. farmers will plant a record 83.212 million acres of soybeans this spring – an increase over last year’s planting of 76.533 million acres, and an increase over the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) February forecast of 79.5 million acres a survey by Allendale, Inc. shows. The latest record for soybean acreage was 77.451 million acres in the 2009/10 season. The USDA’s next planting forecast report will be released on March 31st. The survey conducted by Allendale also indicates that U.S. farmers will sow 92.349 million acres of corn – the smallest acreage since the 2011/12 marketing season. This would be below last year’s sowing of 95.365 million acres but above the USDA’s February estimate of 92 million acres. The survey estimated corn production will be 13.781billion bushels and estimated soybean production will be 3.639 billion bushels. U.S. wheat acreage is projected to be 55.324 million acres – below the USDA’s 2013 estimate of 56.156 million acres, and wheat production is estimated to be 2.175 billion bushels.
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