U.S. farmers expected to boost corn and wheat acreage

U.S. farmers will plant more corn and wheat in 2023 than they did a year earlier, taking advantage of prices that remain relatively high and declining input costs, the government said Feb. 23.

Corn seedings were pegged at 91 million acres and soybean seedings at 87.5 million acres, unchanged from last year, the U.S. Agriculture Department said at its annual Agricultural Outlook Forum.

The wheat forecast was 49.5 million acres, up from 45.7 million in 2022.

With global grain supplies near decade lows following Russia’s invasion of major grains producer Ukraine last year, a big U.S. crop is needed to replenish depleted stockpiles that have helped spark rampant food inflation during the past two years.

U.S. farmers are eyeing lower prices of fertilizer needed to grow corn and hoping for a bumper crop after a late season drought withered last year’s harvest.

Analysts had been expecting 90.9 million acres of corn and 88.6 million acres of soybeans. In 2022, U.S. farmers planted 88.6 million acres of corn.