(Reuters) -Nutrien ( NTR ) beat Wall Street estimates for second-quarter profit on Wednesday, as the world's top potash producer benefited from improved demand in North America amid a robust corn planting season.

U.S. farmers expanded corn plantings by 5% this year to the highest since 2013 while cutting soybean acres by 4% to a five-year low, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in June.

The agency expects U.S. farmers will seed 95.203 million acres (38.527 million hectares) of corn this year, up from 90.594 million last year.

Potash sales jumped 31% to $991 million in the three months ended June 30, the company said.

Total sales rose to $10.44 billion, from $10.16 billion a year.

The Saskatoon, Canada-based firm posted an adjusted profit of $2.65 per share, compared with analysts' average estimate of $2.40, according to data compiled by LSEG.

(Reporting by Vallari Srivastava in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)