by staff
A domestic fertilizer company says U.S. corn acreage is expected to drop to 88 million in 2017 from the 94.5 million planted acres reported this year by the Department of Agriculture.
CF Industries made the projection while unveiling to investors the company?s first financial loss since 2010. Agri-Money reports corn plantings at the level suggested by CF would match those in 2015, which set a six-year low. A drop of the magnitude suggested has not been seen since 2008, when corn acreage tumbled by some 7.5 million acres.
The drop is also greater than the decline suggested by Informa Economics, which two weeks ago estimated U.S. corn plantings next year at 90.97 million acres. CF Industries made its comments as it unveiled a loss of $30 million for the July-to-September quarter, compared with earnings of $90 million a year before.
