March Planting Survey Likely to Point Towards Increase in Soybean Area – 01/31/2024

Midwest farmer simulated budgets suggest soybeans hold an economic advantage over corn at midwinter prices  although a soybean  enterprise is only modestly more profitable per acre than corn. Utilizing data from the last thirty years, the current corn/soybean price ratio results in the forecast for US soybean planted area of 87.5 million acres  .The forecast model accounts for 93% of the variation in the March US soybean survey data with a standard error of two million acres.

In 2023 the March survey  also suggested 87.5 million planted soybean acres, but the final area estimate fell four million acres short of the March survey projection.