CHICAGO: Chicago September corn plunged on Friday to contract lows after US Department of Agriculture data showed far more acres planted with the grain than the trade expected due to favorable weather this spring. But soybeans strengthened on lower acreage than expected, while wheat fell again, having recorded its biggest monthly fall since 2022.

“There’s nothing friendly for corn, but beans came in close to the average trade guess,” said Jim Gerlach, president of A/C Trading. Plantings of corn were 91.5 million acres and soy plantings were 86.1 million acres, the USDA said. Analysts expected 90.3 million acres of corn and 86.8 million acres of soybeans, according to a Reuters survey.

The most-active corn contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was down 18-1/2 cents to $4.04 a bushel, as of 11:43 CDT (1643 GMT). September corn briefly fell below $4 a bushel. Soybeans added 10-3/4 cents to 11.15-1/2 a bushel and wheat lost 11-1/2 cents at $5.68 a bushel.

Meanwhile, US stocks of corn, soybeans and wheat as of June 1 were higher than the same time last year, the USDA said. US corn growers were storing the most of the crop on farm for this point in the year in more than three decades.

Wheat continued to tank, having dropped close to 16% so far this month, the biggest decline since June 2022. “There’s nothing bullish in wheat, and it’s going down with the corn market,” said Sherman Newlin, commodity broker at Risk Management Commodities.

Outside of the US market, wheat planting for the current harvesting season in Argentina has also advanced rapidly over the past week due to recent rainfall over parts of the country’s main farmland, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange said in a weekly report published on Thursday.

The European Commission on Thursday raised its forecast for the European Union’s main wheat crop this year and for EU wheat exports both in the current and next season.