Planting Progresses

The 2022 planting season is well under way across the United States. As planting advances, traders are hoping to receive a better indication of actual U.S. acres.

In the March planting intentions report, the trade was shocked by a considerably lower than thought projection on corn acreage of 89.5 million acres. The trade was just as surprised by the 91 million acre estimate for soybean plantings. Now that planting is progressing, analysts are adjusting their figures.

Several analysts doubted the acreage estimates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and feel the corn projection was too low and soybean estimate was too high. These estimates are based on input sales reports and the historical trend of set crop rotations.

The fact that returns for corn are still more favorable than soybeans, despite a...