The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) issued the update for the seeding of the 2019 campaign. As of April 21, farmers reported to have seeded just 1 percent of their intended 2019 soybean acres. This compares with 2 percent last year and 2 percent for the past 10-year average. Of the 18 states surveyed, the best progress was reported in the Delta states of Mississippi (28 percent), Louisiana (25 percent) and Arkansas (19 percent). The chart that follows shows that U.S. farmers typically surpass the halfway point of the annual soybean seeding campaign by late May before wrapping up the tail end of seeding by the end of June.
According to the National Weather Service’s (NWS) Climate Prediction Center (CPC), the outlook for May suggests that much of the major U.S. soybean growing areas have an equal chance to receive normal precipitation levels in the month of May. The light- and dark-green regions in the southern U.S. and western Corn Belt are likely to see above normal precipitation in May, but this region typically sees fewer soybean plantings when compared to eastern regions. If this outlook is confirmed, U.S. farmers should not see major disruptions in planting the 2019 U.S. soybean crop pegged by the USDA in its March Prospective Plantings report at 34.244 million hectares or 84.617 million acres.
