Acreage report: Oklahoma soybean plantings expand
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated this week that Oklahoma acres planted to soybeans grew by 68 percent this year over last year’s acreage. They didn’t tell us what’s driving the increase.
However, after talking to a producer and an economist today I think it comes down to what drives most any market: supply, demand and price. Here’s what I got from producer Jim Curl of Braman and economist Kim Anderson at Oklahoma State University:
- * Supply: Soybean stocks, or the carryover from last year’s crop is very low. Plus, flooding in the Midwest has delayed planting or ruined fields already planted.
* Demand: There are myriad uses for soybeans in everything from food to ink, and strong demand for beans from China and other foreign markets.
* Price: September soybean contracts closed Thursday at $16.32 per bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, about $7 per bushel above the price they commanded at the same time a year ago.
Other Oklahoma crops and their estimated acres this year:
Wheat, 5.7 million, down 3 percent; corn, 350,000, up 9 percent; soybeans, 310,000, up 68 percent; sorghum, 280,000, up 17 percent; rye, 250,000, down 17 percent; cotton, 190,000, up 9 percent; oats, 50,000, down 37 percent; peanuts, 20,000, up 11 percent.
That’s Curl in the above photo, which I took in a soybean field in 2006. Look for more about the crop planting report in Friday’s Oklahoman.
Jim Stafford
Business Writer
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