USDA forecasts increase in corn acreage and unexpected decrease in wheat acreage in the US in 2025

The USDA's Prospective Plantings report for 2025 unexpectedly indicates a decrease in wheat sowing areas but an increase in corn sowing areas. Corn acreage is projected to rise by 5% from 2024, while soybean acreage is expected to drop by 4%. This results in a decrease in all types of wheat by 2% compared to 2024, marking the second lowest figure since 2019. Despite these changes, the grain stocks report shows minimal impact on futures prices for corn and soybean. The article also teases a discussion on the grain sector's future in the Black Sea and Danube region at the 23 International Conference BLACK SEA GRAIN.KYIV on April 24 in Kyiv.

In the Prospective Plantings report (with forecasts of sowing areas in the United States in 2025) published on March 31, USDA experts unexpectedly lowered the estimate of wheat sowing areas, but increased the forecast of corn sowing areas. Corn acreage is expected to increase 5% from 90.6 million acres (38.6 million hectares) in 2024, 1% above analysts’ average estimate, while soybean acreage is expected to decrease 4% from 87.1 million acres to 83.5 million acres, compared to analysts’ estimate of 83.76 million acres. Analysts had expected that due to the decrease in soybean plantings, farmers would increase the area under wheat to 46.5 million acres. However, USDA experts believe that the area under all types of wheat will decrease by 2% compared to 2024 from 46.1 to 45.4 million acres, which will be the second lowest figure since 2019. At the same time, winter wheat will be sown on 33.3 million acres (0.6 million acres less than analysts expected), spring wheat – 10 million ...