Economists and analysts expect the prospective planting report to show that farmers intend to cut their production of high-cost crops such as corn and cotton, and increase their production of crops such as soybeans, which don& # 39;t require expensive nitrogen fertilizer.

The department asked 86,000 growers during the first two weeks of March what and how much they intend to plant during the new growing season, which begins in much of the farm belt in mid-April.

A drop in corn production could mean more headaches for food executives, many of whom made bad bets on commodity prices for their companies during last year& # 39;s volatile markets. Despite a big U.S. corn harvest last year and the slowing global economy, corn supplies are still so tight that a weather problem during the growing season could easily re-ignite price gyrations. Corn, the nation& # 39;s biggest crop, is used for everything from sweetening soda pop to fattening livestock.

Luke Chandler, director of agricultural commodity research for Dutch financial giant Rabobank Group, said he expects U.S. farmers to plant 84 million acres of corn compared with 86 million acres last year. A smaller corn harvest, plus federal mandates that require gasoline marketers to use more corn-derived ethanol fuel this year, would tend to keep the seasonal average price of corn between $3.50 and $4 a bushel -- roughly twice what it was for much of the 1990s and early this decade.

John Kruse, an agricultural economist at forecasting concern IHS Global Insight, said he expects wheat acreage to fall 7% and cotton acreage to drop 14% from last year. Soybean acreage, meanwhile, will probably climb 1.7%, he said.

Just like last year, when record spring flooding swamped parts of Iowa, Illinois and Missouri, the weather is already playing havoc with the growing season in some parts of the farm belt. Excessive moisture and flooding could delay planting of spring wheat and sugar beets in the Red River Valley, which straddles the border between North Dakota and Minnesota. The area is home to the biggest concentration of sugar beets in the country, which are refined into white sugar crystals.

Write to Scott Kilman at scott.kilman@wsj.com