Iowa farmers add 800,000 soybean acres, corn acres remain steady

U.S. farmers planted a record 84.8 million acres of soybeans, 11 percent more than a year earlier, with Iowa planting 800,000 more soybean acres, climbing to 10.1 million, a U.S. Department of Agriculture report showed.

The nation's planted corn acres are the fifth largest on record at 91.6 million acres, down 4 percent from a year ago, the government reported. Iowa's corn acres remained steady at 13.6 million.

A separate report indicated that the U.S. had 3.85 billion bushes of corn on hand, up 39 percent from a year earlier. Soybeans stocks were 7 percent lower than a year earlier at 405 million bushels.

Corn and soybean prices tumbled on the news.

Iowa and the U.S. could see record corn and soybean production. "With corn, it depends on yields. On beans, it's just the sheer number of acres," said Chad Hart, an Iowa State University economist.

Hart believes Iowa's increase in soybean acres represented a return of land that farmers were unable to plant last year because conditions were too wet.

The federal government reported that Iowa had about 730,000 acres that weren't planted last year.

Corn prices were down 17 cents to $4.26 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade. Soybeans fell 52 cents to $13.26 a bushel.