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Ag economist says acreage shifts are likely

Purdue Ag Economist Jim Mintert says an acreage shift is likely this planting season.

“USDA was estimating corn acreage at about 97 million acres, but we think weakening returns for corn suggests an acreage shift is likely,” he says. “We think planted corn acreage could easily fall a million acres below the intentions and it might even be more than that.”

Mintert, director of Purdue’s Center for Commercial Agriculture, says they’re anticipating a shift of one million acres from corn to soybeans.

“What are the implications of that— If you have trend yields, we’re going to see some pretty big increases in ending stocks at the end of the 2020 marketing  year and that especially true for corn,” he says.

He says there’s a possibility for a huge carryover from the 2020 crop into the 2021 marketing year that could be the largest since the 1980s if there is record acreage and yields.