By Sungwoo Park March 22 (Bloomberg) -- Soybeans dropped for the first time in six days on speculation that U.S. farmers will plant a record crop this year and after Chinese imports declined. Soybeans for May delivery dropped as much as 3.25 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $9.585 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade and traded at $9.595 at 4:14 p.m. in Seoul. The oilseed has fallen 8.6 percent this year on forecasts for record production in Brazil and Argentina, the biggest exporters of livestock feed and cooking oil. “Soybeans have been under pressure as South American crops are soon to hit the market after a good harvest,” said Han Sung Min, a broker at Korea Exchange Bank Futures Co. in Seoul. “Recent forecasts by Allendale and others that U.S. soybean planting will increase are hurting sentiment for the grain.” U.S. farmers will plant a record amount of soybeans this year and the second-biggest area of corn since World War II, according to a survey of growers by Allendale Inc., the Illinois-based farm-market adviser and brokerage, on March 19. Soybean plantings will rise 2.1 percent to 79.111 million acres (32 million hectares) from a record 77.451 million last year, Allendale said. The U.S. government on March 31 is scheduled to release the results of a national survey of farmer planting intentions. Imports by China, buyer of more than half the world’s soybean exports, fell to 2.95 million tons in February, 9.6 percent lower than a year earlier, customs data released today show. Purchases dropped 28 percent from 4.1 million tons in January, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Wheat Acreage Wheat acreage is expected to plummet, the Allendale survey showed, while the area sown with corn will total 90.152 million acres, up 4.2 percent from 86.482 million last year, it said. Wheat for May delivery was little changed at $4.8425 after advancing as much as 0.5 percent earlier. The contract lost 0.3 percent last week, the third straight weekly decline. Corn futures for delivery in the same month were unchanged at $3.7450 a bushel after rising as much as 0.5 percent to $3.7625. Futures climbed 2.8 percent last week, the first weekly gain since Feb. 26. The most-active contract has fallen 9.7 percent this year on forecasts for larger crops in Argentina and Brazil, the biggest exporters after the U.S. Corn may rise this week on speculation that wet weather will delay planting of the U.S. crop, while soybeans may gain on concern that the government will report the tightest March 1 inventories in six years, according to a Bloomberg survey. Twenty-two of 33 traders and analysts surveyed on March 19 said corn will rise, and 19 said soybeans would rally. Planting Time “When to plant is a very important factor when it comes to yields,” Korea Exchange’s Han said. “Recent weather there does not seem to be favorable for planting, which could delay seeding and thus hurt corn yields.” Snow from northeastern Oklahoma to northern Illinois on March 20 would be followed by unusually cold weather through today, Allen Motew, a QT Weather meteorologist in Chicago, said March 18. Rain will fall over most of the Midwest starting March 24 and planting may be stalled by higher-than-normal rainfall from Texas to Georgia in the next two weeks, Motew said. To contact the reporters on this story: Sungwoo Park in Seoul at spark47@bloomberg.net.

Source