The USDA/NASS planting report released Thursday shows corn and soybean prospective plantings down and wheat acreage up.

“Bullish numbers in the Prospective Plantings report overwhelmed bearish numbers in Grain Stocks in this morning’s releases from USDA/NASS,” says Mark Welch, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension economist.

The report shows farmers intending to plant 88 million acres of corn, 89 million acres of soybeans, and 47.3 million acres of wheat for 2018. “These numbers are outside the ranges of the pre-report estimates, lower for both corn and soybeans, higher for wheat,” says Welch.

He says acreage for the top corn planting states (each with over 5 million acres) in 2018 compared to 2017 is 100 percent for Iowa, 98 percent for Illinois, 97 percent for Nebraska, 93 percent for Minnesota, 100 percent for South Dakota, 95 percent for Indiana, and 93 percent for Kansas.

The report indicates cotton acres will be up 7 percent compared to last year, sorghum acres up 5 percent, and rice up 9 percent.

“The combined six-crop total is 246.4 million acres, down 600,000 or minus 2 tenths of one percent, Welch says.