Posted April 1, 2010
Farmers across the country anticipate planting 88.8 million acres of corn this spring, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.
USDA released its Prospective Plantings report yesterday and it shows intended corn plantings will be up 3 percent from 2009.
In Iowa, corn acres are expected to be 200,000 acres less than last year. The Iowa Corn Growers Association says that’s due in part to field work that was not completed last fall and because of the normal corn-soybean rotation. As of March 1, Iowa farmers intend to plant 13.5 million acres of corn for all purposes.
Illinois, Kansas, Missouri and Ohio are all expected to increase corn plantings by 300,000 acres or more.
While Iowa corn plantings are expected to be down from last year, soybean acres are expected to increase. Producers intend to plant 9.90 million acres of soybeans in Iowa this spring, an increase of 300,000 acres from last year’s planted acres.
USDA also released its quarterly grain stocks report yesterday and it shows adequate supplies of corn for livestock feeding.
The total amount of corn in storage on farms and in off-farm locations across the U.S. is 7.7 billion bushels, which is larger than the total amounts of corn harvested each year since the early 1990s, according to the Renewable Fuels Association. The current amount of corn in storage is 11 percent higher than the same time last year.
In Iowa as of March 1, corn stocks in all positions totaled 1.50 billion bushels, nearly unchanged from last year, USDA said. Soybeans stored in all positions in Iowa as of March 1 totaled 251 million bushels, down 13 percent from the 290 million bushels on hand March 1, 2009.
The new USDA report also indicates Iowa farmers intend to plant slightly fewer oats and harvest 30,000 more acres of hay this year.
The Prospective Plantings report for Iowa is based on voluntary responses from nearly 2,000 Iowa producers. The report provides only a preliminary indication of the acres farmers intend to plant. Actual plantings will depend greatly upon weather, economic conditions and the availability of production inputs at the time producers must make their final planting decisions.
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