On March 31, USDA released its Prospective Plantings report for 2020. Here is what the ag agency is forecasting for this year’s growing season.

• Corn planted area for all purposes in 2020 is estimated at 97 million acres, up 8% or 7.29 million acres from last year. Compared with last year, planted acreage is expected to be up or unchanged in 38 of the 48 estimating States.
• Soybean planted area for 2020 is estimated at 83.5 million acres, up 10% from last year. Compared with last year, planted acreage is expected to be up or unchanged in 22 of the 29 estimating States.
• All wheat planted area for 2020 is estimated at 44.7 million acres, down 1% from 2019. This represents the lowest all wheat planted area since records began in 1919. The 2020 winter wheat planted area, at 30.8 million acres, is down 1% from last year and down slightly from the previous estimate. Of this total, about 21.7 million acres are Hard Red Winter, 5.69 million acres are Soft Red Winter, and 3.42 million acres are White Winter. Area expected to be planted to other spring wheat for 2020 is estimated at 12.6 million acres, down 1% from 2019. Of this total, about 11.9 million acres are Hard Red Spring wheat. Durum planted area for 2020 is expected to total 1.29 million acres, down 4% from the previous year.
• All cotton planted area for 2020 is estimated at 13.7 million acres, down less than 1% from last year. Upland area is estimated at 13.5 million acres, down less than 1% from 2019. American Pima area is estimated at 228,000 acres, down 1% from 2019.