Chad Smith, NAFB News Service

U.S. farmers planted more corn and soybeans this year than in 2019, but they’re also planting less wheat and cotton than last year. Those are the numbers from the latest USDA Crop Production Report issued on Tuesday. The National Ag Statistics Service says farmers planted 92 million acres of corn, below the 94.8 million the trade expected, but still three percent higher than 2019. Growers expect to harvest 84 million acres of corn for grain, up 11 percent over last year. Soybean planted acres are estimated at 83.8 million acres, up ten percent from last year. Cotton acres are estimated at 12.2 million, down 11 percent from 2019. The all-wheat planted acre estimate is 44.3 million acres, down two percent from last year. That number is the lowest all-wheat planted area on record since recordkeeping began in 1919. In the Stocks Report, corn stocks totaled 5.2 billion bushels, up less than one percent from last year. On-farm stocks were up three percent, while off-farm stocks were down two percent. Soybeans in storage came in at 1.39 billion bushels, down 22 percent from June 1st of 2019. On-farm soybean stocks dropped 13 percent from last year, while the off-farm stocks were down 28 percent. The all-wheat storage numbers totaled 1.04 billion bushels, down three percent from last year.