- Last Friday's USDA Acreage Update numbers for corn and soybeans are almost spot-on with what was reported as “final” planted area for the 2016 crops.
- This fits with what the Nov23 soybean/Dec23 corn spread during the 6 months from September 2022 through February 2023.
- Given the continued similarity, attention is already turning to what the 2024 edition of the SX/CZ spread is showing us.
As you might expect, one of the more popular questions I’ve received since last Friday is my thoughts on USDA’s acreage update. Most of the attention has been on corn and soybean planted area, and rightfully so, with USDA raising its corn estimate by 2.1 million acres (ma) from the March 31 Prospective Plantings guess to 94.1 ma (keep that number in mind, 94.1 ma). This was a 6% increase (roughly) from the latest official guess on 2022’s corn planted area of 88.6 and in line with what I wrote as a possibility in late February 2023.
