The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agriculture Statistics Service released its Acreage report on June 30, showing that U.S. soybean growers are headed toward another record year in 2015.
A total of 85.1 million acres of soybeans have been planted thus far in 2015, which is a two percent increase from the amount recorded last year. In April, NASS released a report that forecasted a record-high planting year for soybeans.
Soybean area for harvest is forecasted at 84.4 million acres. If this amount is reached by the end of the year, it will be 1.4 million more acres than 2014. Record high planting has occurred in Kentucky, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. About 94 percent of the planted acres of soybeans in the U.S. are herbicide resistant varieties.
The amount of soybeans stored totaled 625 bushels, which is up 54 percent since June 1, 2014. On-farm soybean stocks were also up 126 percent from one year ago, and off-farm stocks have increased 28 percent.
Due to weather conditions, 15 percent of U.S. soybean acreage located in Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri have yet to be planted. NASS intends to collect data in these areas again later this year once final estimates can be made.
To gather the information for the report, the National Agriculture Statistics Service surveyed about 11,000 segments of land and more than 70,000 producers over the course of the first two weeks of June.
All of the reports on acreage and grain stocks can be found on the NASS website.