Washington-Corn planted acreage in 2007 is expected to increase 8.7 million acres in to 87 million acres, according to Keith Collins, USDA chief economist at the annual Agricultural Outlook Conference in Washington on March 1. This is up slightly from USDA’s last assessment Feb. 14. Collins said the planting would be the highest in more than 60 years (since 1946). Soybean acreage is expected to be down 5 million acres to 70.5 million, the lowest since 1997. Wheat acres are expected to be up 2.7 million acres to 60 million. In addition to soybeans, much of the expanded acreage is expected to come from upland cotton, other feedgrains and long grain rice. Upland cotton plantings are expected to be the lowest since 1990. For the current year, Collins expects corn used for ethanol will reach 2.15 bushels in 2007 and increase 50 percent to 3.2 billion bushels in 2007/2008.
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