U.S. farmers are shifting from corn to soybeans

"After years of planting one massive crop after another, U.S. corn farmers are planning to pull back for the first time since the recession, signaling a new era of uncertainty for the nation's largest crop," Mark Peters and Tony C. Dreibus report for The Wall Street Journal. Their news peg is the Prospective Plantings Report from the National Agricultural Statistics Service, which predicts a big shift to soybeans, which are "nearly three times the price of corn," notes Agri-Pulse, a Washington newsletter.

"Producers surveyed across the United States intend to plant an estimated 81.5 million acres of soybeans in 2014, up 6 percent from last year and an all-time record high," NASS said in its news release. "Corn growers intend to plant 91.7 million acres in 2014, down 4 percent from last year and if realized the lowest planted acreage since 2010."

Part of the reason is global competition, as illustrated in these Wall Street Journal charts:

Another negative factor for corn is the "flattening out of federal ethanol mandates," the Journal notes.
Gasoline refiners keep pressing Congress to cut back the requirement, ans a new report will add impetus to their lobbying. "Last year's spike in the price of ethanol blending credits cost independent refiners at least $1.35 billion, more than three times as much as the year before," reports Cezary Podkul of Reuters.