Dilemma for U.S. Farmers: Which Crop Will Lose the Least Money?
- Chance of yield bonus spurs more corn, soy acres, less wheat
- World grain glut is biggest ever as U.S. wheat exports plunge
Soybeans are harvested with a combine harvester in Princeton, Illinois.
Photographer: Daniel Acker/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
For farmers who grow some of the biggest U.S. crops, choosing what to plant this year has become a bet on which one will lose less money.
A three-year plunge in prices has sent farm income to the lowest in more than a decade and left parts of the Midwest agricultural economy in recession. While growers probably would lose $70 on every acre of corn or soybeans they sow -- the most since 1999 -- those crops offer the best chance at profit if yields are better than average, according to AgResource Co. So, even with record global surpluses, U.S. farmers are preparing to plant more corn and soybeans in 2016 and devote less land to wheat, a Bloomberg survey showed.