The highly anticipated Prospective Plantings report, released Thursday, March 28 by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, showed lower than anticipated crop acres. Acreage of all crops is estimated to be 6.3 million acres lower than in 2023. Corn and soybean acres were each one million acres below USDA’s Agricultural Outlook Forum estimates from February, though soybean acres were in line with analysts’ pre-report expectations. Markets reacted positively to the news, especially corn where the new-crop December 2024 futures prices rose about 15 cents per bushel following the report release.
