Comments on the Soybean Planting Survey

The USDA’s March survey put the area planted to soybeans in 2020 at  83.5 million acres which would be up sharply from a year ago, but under the average area planted in the years of 2017 through 2018.. The R2 between the March survey and the final area estimate  was 96% in the period from 1965 through 2019 and 82% when the data is adjusted for trend. In 2019 the area planted fell well short of the March survey due to wet weather.

The 2020 U.S soybean crop would total 4.1  billion bushels assuming the area planned in the March survey and a trend yield. The USDA current estimates old crop soybean usage at 4.06 billion bushels.