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Market prices didn’t sway most WI crop rotation plans

The strong market outlook for corn and soybeans appears to have little influence on farmers planting plans. 

Casey Kelliher farms near Whitewater, and he’s only making a minor change in his rotation. “With the exception of rotating one center pivot out of corn that we don’t do very often into beans just to give it a break, our rotation is pretty much the same as it has been with about two-thirds corn and one-third beans.”

Steve Duwe grows about 750 acres of corn and 370 acres of soybeans near Johnson Creek between Madison and Milwaukee. He says, “I don’t think a lot of people around here changed what they were going to do with their crop mix. I think they had pretty well made up their mind last fall and done tillage and fertilizer application because the weather was really conducive to that, so I think there’s a lot of switching going on in my area.”

Zeb Zuehls farms near Montello in south-central Wisconsin, and he tells Brownfield his soybean acreage is up a little and he’s growing a lot of hay this year.

Mac Marshall with the United Soybean Board says his discussions with board members and farmers showed similar plans, and he tells Brownfield the reason for increased acreage totals is likely recovery from the past two years of bad weather. “Some of the expansion we’re seeing year-on-year, that we’re plus-four and a half million acres on beans, a lot of that is renewed strength coming back from the Dakotas from two down years of available area, but you know, by and large, farmers are sticking to rotations.”

Nationally, USDA projects corn acreage at just over 91 million acres and soybean acreage up 5% at 87.6 million acres.