Farmers may plant 97.43 million acres of corn this year, up 0.3 percent from last year, which would be the largest corn area since 1936, according to a Farm Futures magazine survey report issued this week. The survey of 1,750 U.S. growers also showed their intentions are to plant a record 79.09 million acres of soybeans, up 2.5 percent from last year.

“With stocks of both corn and soybeans projected near historic lows, strong acreage this spring is a must to rebuild inventories,” Farm Futures Senior Editor Bryce Knorr said. “Spring weather could still change these numbers significantly and prices will be important, too,” he added and noted that “Some 18 percent of those surveyed said they could still shift 50 percent or more of their acres.”

Some of the increased corn and soybean area could be on land that had previously been sown to wheat, Farm Futures said. The survey showed total wheat seedings at 56.12 million, down one million from earlier surveys.  USDA will release its March prospective plantings and quarterly stocks report on Thursday, March 28.