Statistics Canada released its principal field crop areas report Thursday, predicting an increase in corn acres, but a decrease for soybeans.
The report expects area seeded to corn to rise 6.2 per cent to 3.5 million acres, while soybean acreage is expected to drop a modest 1.9 per cent. These numbers are relatively proportional to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's prospective plantings report from last month, which forecast a six per cent increase for U.S. corn acreage and a less-than-one per cent drop for soybeans.
Market analyst Brian Voth says he wasn't surprised by this shift, as all winter long prices have favoured corn, however he notes the Stats Can report is done at the end of March, so it doesn't reflect recent price action — particularly for what's happened in the soybean markets.
"With the cash prices and with futures having run up they way they have in the last two weeks, soybeans could very easily be in a position to be buying some acres back that maybe were planned to go into some other crops as of the end of March," Voth says.
On the other hand, Voth says Stats Can's numbers for wheat acreage came as a bit of a surprise.
The report says farmers intend to drop wheat acreage by more than 250,000 acres. Voth says the trade was expecting a drop in wheat acreage, but they were looking for a bigger drop than what the report reflected.
Source : Steinbachonline