03/05/07 USDA sees historic acreage shift

Farm and Ranch March 5, 2007 This year will witness historic adjustments in fuel crop production. That's what USDA chief economist Keith Collins told the department's Outlook Forum last week. It's based on soaring corn prices and corn demand. Collins: "We foresee corn planted area for 2007 increasing 8.7 million acres to 87 million acres in 2007. It would be the highest corn plantings in 60 years in the United States. And the biggest one year increase, you have to go back to the supply control period of the 1980's to see an annual change this big." Collins said those corn acres will come from soybeans in the Midwest, spring wheat in the Northern Plains and cotton in the South. With normal yields those corn acres could produce a record crop of over 12 billion bushels. Collins: "But even with that increase we think production will fall short of demand and stocks, already expected to be low, will decline even further." Making things extremely volatile if there is bad weather in corn country this year. As for wheat, USDA is expecting total plantings of 60 million acres, up 2.7 million from last year. With normal yields USDA says that would produce a crop of nearly 2.2 billion bushels and a season average price of $4.30 a bushel, a nickel higher than for this past crop. USDA sees reduced plantings of soybeans at 70.5 million acres. Production is estimated at 2.9 billion bushels with an average price of $7.10 a bushel. The season average price for corn is estimated to be $3.60 a bushel. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.