USDA sees US 2020-21 corn acreage at eight-year high of 97 million acres

New Delhi — The US corn planted area has been estimated at 96.99 million acres for the 2020-21 marketing year, a high since 2012 if realized, the US Department of Agriculture said Tuesday.

This figure marked an increase of 8% from the 2019-20 marketing year, the USDA said in its Prospective Planting report.

The acreage estimate was above the 94 million acres that USDA had predicted in its Outlook Forum in February. The average analyst estimate was also at 94 million acres. S&P Global Platts Analytics has estimated acreage under US corn in 2020-21 to be at 93 million acres.

"Compared with last year, planted acreage is expected to be up or unchanged in 38 of the 48 estimating states," the USDA report said.

The states with the largest corn planting acreage expected were Iowa at 14.1 million acres, Illinois at 11.3 million acres, Nebraska at 10.5 million acres and Minnesota at 8.4 million acres.

The Prospective Plantings survey is usually conducted in the first two weeks of March.

In the 2019-20 marketing year, which runs from September to August, inclement weather conditions in the US delayed planting of corn and also kept acreage on the lower end. USDA's chief economist Robert Johansson had said in the outlook forum that weather conditions in 2020 are likely to be better than the "historic" conditions seen last year.

In the forum, USDA estimated corn production in the US in the 2020-21 marketing year to be at 15.46 billion bushels with yield of 178.5 bushels per acre.

A major factor supporting the likely higher acreage under corn this year is the low corn-to-soybean price ratio.

Recently, the corn-to-soybean price ratio has climbed from its three-year low of 2.33:1. However, the ratio is still below 2.4:1, so it continues to favor corn, according to Pete Meyer, head of grains and oilseeds analytics at Platts Analytics.