USDA: Wet Midwest weather leads to Iowa farmers planting more soybeans

Iowa farmers planted more soybeans and less corn than intended due to a record wet spring, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Acreage Report released June 28.

The report estimates the state’s farmers planted 9.5 million acres of soybeans, up 100,000 acres from March intensions and 150,000 acres from last year. Iowa farmers planted 9.35 million acres of soybeans in 2012.

An estimated 14 million acres of corn were planted, down 200,000 acres from March intentions and 200,000 acres from 2012, according to the report.

It has been a challenging year, to say the least. The northern tier of the state, along with portions of central Iowa, is likely to have the most prevented plant acres, crop experts say.

Mark Jackson, ISA president and farmer from Rose Hill, encourages farmers to remain focused on their marketing efforts.

“The adage ‘rain makes grain’ is a dominant theme on traders’ minds and will likely pressure price cycles throughout the 2013 marketing season,” said Jackson. “This is little consolation to farmers with mixed crop conditions. But a reminder to utilize the expertise of the Iowa Soybean Association to maximize crop maintenance decisions in another difficult cropping season.”

Nationally, the USDA report offered a record-high estimate of 77.7 million acres of soybeans planted, up 1 percent from last year.

The USDA Grain Stocks Report released June 28 estimates Iowa’s soybean reserves at 103 million bushels as of June 1, down 29 percent from the same date last year. The nation’s soybean reserves were 435 million bushels on June 1, down 35 percent from a year ago.

Despite the cutback in Iowa’s planted corn acres this spring, USDA says the amount of corn acreage planted around the nation is the most since 1936, when 102 million acres of corn were planted. U.S. farmers have planted an estimated 97.4 million acres of corn this year.

Iowa corn stocks on June 1 totaled 565 million bushels, 18 percent less than a year ago, according to the Grain Stocks Report. The nation’s supply of corn totaled 2.76 billion bushels on June 1, down 12 percent from the same date last year.

Source: Iowapork