Lot's of discussion yesterday on the surprisingly light U.S. acreage intentions. This is total 2021 acres versus March 2020 intentions (I posted these numbers versus 2020 final yesterday). Most states reported fewer planted acres for 2021 than they did for 2020. 
But I asked farmers yesterday to give insight on why acres were light and got a BUNCH of good answers (thank you!). Some of those explanations (high cost of inputs, prices of other crops - hay for example, rotations, etc) all make sense. Check out that thread if you haven't.
Another possible angle: If we claim low confidence in USDA's 2021 numbers, wouldn't we also want to question their March 2020 numbers? Maybe the March 2020 intentions were too ambitious. And ultimately, these numbers are based on what farmers told USDA.
Some have suggested farmers could just straight up lie on the surveys, but USDA does have checks for that. Yes, the data is survey based, but USDA checks it for consistency with past years so reporting something wildly different would certainly raise a flag.
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