CBT TRADERS LOOK AHEAD TO SPRING PLANTINGS

  Chicago Board of trade grain traders and
  analysts voiced a lot of interest in how farmers planned to
  handle their upcoming spring plantings, prompting sales of new
  crop months of corn and oats and purchases in new crop soybeans
  in the futures markets.
      Professionals in the grains trade think that farmers will
  be more willing to stick with corn acres than soybeans because
  corn is protected by the acreage reduction program. That gives
  deficiency payments to farmers if corn prices stay low.
      Farmers can place soybeans under the loan program if they
  sign-up for reduced acreage, but they have no price guarantees.
      With the price outlook for both commodities so dismal,
  traders believe farmers will want to stick with a sure thing
  rather than gamble on soybeans, even though the new crop
  soybean/corn ratio of 2.9/1 would make planting soybeans more
  attractive under normal circumstances.
      An announcement late Friday that the USDA will lift the
  limited cross-compliance requirement for the 1987 oats crop,
  means farmers will be able plant an estimated two to three mln
  more oat acres this year than last without being penalized,
  traders said.
      Here too, acres some farmers may have been thinking of
  shifting to soybeans will now be planted with oats, due to the
  more attractive deal from the government, they added.
      Cotton prices are almost twice what they were just six
  months ago, which should prompt many farmers in the South to
  put soybean land back into cotton.
      One of the reasons for the steady increase in soybean
  production in recent years has been a general shift of acres in
  traditional cotton producing regions of the South to soybeans,
  which are easier to grow, one commercial trader said.
  

