Intended corn acres are up from last year and corn stocks down, according to USDA reports released March 30. Corn stocks in all positions on March 1 totaled 6.01 billion bushels, down 8 percent from the same date a year ago. Of the total stocks, 3.19 billion bushels are stored on farms, down 6 percent from a year earlier, and off-farm stocks, at 2.82 billion bushels, are down 10 percent from a year ago. The December 2011 to February 2012 indicated disappearance is 3.64 billion bushels, compared with 3.53 billion bushels during the same period last year. Soybean stocks, in contrast, were up. Soybeans stored in all positions on March 1 totaled 1.37 billion bushels, up 10 percent from March 1, 2011.

The March 30 planting intentions report is the first of many to come from USDA as the market watches the prospects for the new corn crop. According to the report, corn growers intend to plant 95.9 million acres of corn for all purposes in 2012, up 4 percent from last year and 9 percent higher than in 2010. If realized, this will represent the highest planted acreage in the United States since 1937 when an estimated 97.2 million acres were planted. Soybean acres in the USDA’s May 30 planting intentions report were down 1 percent from last year, and 5 percent from 2010, estimated at 73.9 million acres.  Compared with 2011, soybean planted area is down or unchanged across the Corn Belt and Great Plains with the exceptions of Illinois, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

As the U.S. major grain crops are interrelated and shift acres due to market signals, all wheat planted area is estimated at 55.9 million acres, up 3 percent from 2011. The 2012 winter wheat planted area, at 41.7 million acres, is up 3 percent from last year but down 1 percent from the previous estimate. All cotton planted area for 2012 is expected to total 13.2 million acres, 11 percent below last year.