Survey finds farmers planted 6 million fewer corn acres than last year

Days before USDA is set to release their latest estimates, the Kluis Commodity Advisors/Successful Farming (SF) 2024 Acreage Survey finds American farmers planted fewer corn acres and more soybean acres than USDA previously forecast. 

According to the survey, the combined total of corn, soybean, and wheat acres in 2024 is 224.3 million, down from 227.8 million last year. 

Corn

The Kluis/SF survey found farmers planted 88.5 million corn acres this year, down from 94.6 million in 2023.

In the March Prospective Plantings report, USDA pegged 2024 corn acres at 90 million. The March report was a survey of what farmers anticipated planting this year. This Friday, June 28, USDA is expected to reveal the results of its Acreage Survey, which asks farmers how many acres they actually planted. 

The Kluis/SF survey results are 1.8 million acres below the average trade estimate going into Friday’s report. 

Soybeans

The Kluis/SF survey pegged soybean acres at 88 million, 1.3 million acres more than the average trade estimate.

Last year farmers planted 83.6 million soybean acres. USDA's March report pegged 2024 soybean acres at 86.5 million.

Wheat

For wheat, the Kluis/SF survey found American farmers planted 47.8 million acres this year, down from 49.6 million a year ago but up from USDA’s March estimate of 47.5. 

This is in line with the average trade estimate ahead of Friday’s USDA report. 

Thoughts from Kluis

Al Kluis, managing director of Kluis Commodity Advisors, says these survey results may give some indication as to what USDA is announcing later this week. He says the results are bullish for corn, bearish for soybeans, and neutral for wheat. 

“What I found most interesting is our survey showed farmers would have 39% more prevent plant acres than last year,” says Kluis. 

“This suggests the USDA projection from the March Prospective Plantings report for nearly 4 million less planted acres than last year for all principal crops may be right on. We will not know how many total prevent plant acres we have in 2024 until that number is reported by the Farm Service Agency (FSA) in August.”