US corn sowings will remain level with last year, while soybean plantings will fall back thanks to less appealing economics, Societe Generale said.

The bank saw corn sowings in 2016 unchanged, at 88m acres.

Societe Generale said "projected returns for corn continue to outperform those of soybeans".

Even on land where corn is being planted for the second year running, which tends to reduce yields by 10%, Societe Generale sees corn producing higher returns than soybeans.

Soybean plantings fall

And the switch will leave soybeans plantings down 1% year on year, at 84.2m acres.

As of the time of writing its report, Societe Generale reported the price of soybean futures for November was 2.28 times that of December corn futures.

"A reading above 2.40 sends a strong signal to plant soybeans, while a reading at or below 2.10 is clearly in favour of corn," said Societe Generale.

Spring wheat fall-off

Sowing of hard red spring wheat is expected to fall by 3% to 12.1m acres, thanks to "lagging global wheat prices".

"Coupled with a rising US dollar, projected returns for hard red spring continue to fall," Societe Generale said.

The bank has already seen hard red winter wheat sowings for the 2016 harvest falling by 9% year-on-year, with soft red winter wheat sowings down 5%.

Costs fall

But planting of cotton, which saw prices rise in 2015, were seen up 7% at 9.2m acres.

And there was good news for farmers as fertilizer and fuel prices were seen dropping, reducing costs per acre.

Societe Generale forecast the amount paid by farmers for nitrogen fertilizers to fall by 25-30% year-on-year.

Phosphate costs were seen falling by 10-20%, while potash costs were seen down 25-30%.

"We believe that US consumption of nitrogen, phosphate and potash have already peaked and that growth in acreage and crop rotation should remain the key driver of fertiliser consumption," Societe Generale said.