CHICAGO, (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Thursday that they intend to plant 89.490 millions acres of corn by 2022. This is a decrease of 4% over last year, and lower than the range of trade expectation. USDA forecasts soybean plantings at 90.955million acres. That’s a 4 percent increase from the previous year, but still well above analyst estimates.

Additionally, USDA reports U.S. March 1 Wheat Stocks at 1.025 Billion Bushels. These are the lowest U.S. stocks since 2008; corn stocks were at 7.850 billion and soybean stocks were at 1.931billion bushels.

Highlights:

* USDA plantings and stocks summary table

* U.S. wheat stocks drop to lowest since 2008

* U.S. quarterly grain stocks highlights

* Estimates for U.S. quarterly grain stocks

* Estimates for U.S. corn, soy, wheat acreage

* Estimates for cotton, small grains acreage

* History of estimates for USDA stocks data

* History of estimates for USDA acreage data

COMMENTS:

* Terry Reilly, senior analyst, Futures International:

To meet the demands, we’ll need all of the acres that USDA has reported. It was 2.5 million corn acres that came in below expectations. This surprised everyone. This could be due to a shortage in fertilizer supply and record-breaking fertilizer prices.

* Brian Basting, analyst with Advance Trading:

The bean acres are a record and we will see if it is achieved. Producors were searching for alternative options after we witnessed the rise in (fertilizer prices) since last autumn. Producers were also looking for attractive oileed prices.

* Don Roose, president of U.S. Commodities:

“The number of corn was leading the charge. The crops were not sufficient, and the stock number was even lower than trade believed. … This boils down directly to fertilizer costs. However, the corn acres could be replanted very quickly if today’s market is as strong.

* Jim Gerlach, president of A/C Trading:

The US Department of Agriculture’s Corn Plantings Forecast shows that the farmers aren’t happy to have to pay record-breaking fertilizer prices. The farmers are either reducing fertilizer use or have switched (of soybean acres to corn) a little. These prices are not affordable.”

* Charlie Sernatinger, analyst with ED&F Man Capital:

“Wow. The corn (futures were) out to the races on both the acreage and spring wheat numbers; the new-crop bean (futures), under pressure but I think that the beans too will be purchased off these numbers. The total corn and bean acres reached 180.5 million. This is the same as 2020. “Bean stocks were also bearish, contributing to early selling.”

* Craig Turner, senior ag broker at Daniels Trading:

There should have been more market response to these numbers. These numbers should have been limit up, limit down. … A rising tide is said to lift all boats. This could mean that a rise in wheat and corn prices might be beneficial for beans.

* Bob Utterback, president of Utterback Marketing:

Remember the scene in ‘The Exorcist,’ where the little girl spins around spinning her head and spewing out pea soup. The bears seem to be doing the same thing right now. Many of my customers as farmers are looking to switch a portion of their acres to beans. To add a million additional acres, it doesn’t require a great deal of effort from these farmers.