Prospective Plantings Report Issued; Looking for Big Year in Illinois

Thursday's USDA Prospective Plantings report caused grain markets to swoon, as forecasts for additional corn acres this spring shocked grain traders.

Nationally, corn acres at expected to total 93.6 million acres -- the highest acreage since the 2013 crop.  Soybean acreage is pegged at 82.2 million acres, slightly below last year's planted acreage.   In Illinois, corn acreage is forecast at 12.1 million acres, up 400,000 acres from last year; soybeans are up 200,000 acres to 10 million.

It amounts to what A/C Trading President Jim Gerlach calls a bet on continued good weather and big yields. "Corn is always the lottery ticket of crops because your yields can vary so much." Because corn typically yields far more grain/acre than other grains, "in a good year you can make money withcheap corn if you make a lot of it."