US farmers will sow fewer acres with major crops this spring, breaking a string of four years of increases, in a move that traders said would support agricultural commodities prices through the economic crisis.

In its closely watched prospective planting report, the US Department of Agriculture said on Tuesday that the country’s farmers would sow about 246m acres this year, down 2.8 per cent from last year’s 253m acres and the first acreage drop since 2005.