Record Soybean Seedings

WASHINGTON - Jun 30/14 - SNS -- The United States seeded the largest soybean crop in history this year, boosting area 11% to 84.8 million acres, according to the USDA's seeded area report for 2014.

Area for harvest, at 84.1 million acres, is up 11% from 2013 and will be a record high by more than 7.4 million acres, if realized.

Record high planted acreage is estimated in Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Overall, planted area increased or was unchanged in all 31 States with the exception of Oklahoma, which is showing a decline of 20,000 acres.

Planting conditions this spring were much improved compared with last year when wet conditions delayed planting in many areas of the Corn Belt and Delta. Planting of this year's soybean crop was underway by May 4 in all 18 major States with the exception of Minnesota and North Dakota. All States were underway by mid-May, with 33% of the crop planted by May 18, twelve percentage points ahead of last year's pace but 5 percentage points behind the 5-year average. Generally favorable conditions from late May into early June allowed planting progress to reach 92% by June 15, nine percentage points ahead of last year and 2 percentage points ahead of normal. At that time, Arkansas and Mississippi were the only States where planting progress lagged behind normal by more than 5 percentage points.

Half the soybean crop had emerged by June 1, twenty-one percentage points ahead of last year's pace and 5 percentage points ahead of normal. Emergence advanced to 83% by June 15, with progress equal to or ahead of the normal pace in 14 of the 18 major States.