Planting Intentions of U.S. Farmers Unveiled

U.S. farmers intend to plant more corn, wheat and cotton acres in 2011 than last year. According to the Prospective Plantings report released by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service - they’ll plant 3.99-million more corn acres (5% increase), 3.89-million more wheat acres and 1.59-million more cotton acres (15% jump). Soybean acreage is expected to be 76.6-million - a decline from 2010 - but still the third largest on record. Overall - farmers have reported plans to plant 323.8-million acres to the 21 major crops surveyed for the report - an increase of 7.09-million acres from 2010.

Todd Davis, Crops Economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation says this shows US are responding to US market demands…”the market was looking for corn acreage, and producers are going to respond.” Davis says the big increases are in the western part of the Corn Belt. The Corn Belt has expanded to non-traditional regions, while 4 million additional corn acres are expected over last year, Davis says already tight corn stocks aren’t expected to increase that much this year…”so, the story is we are projected to keep stocks relatively tight, under 10%. And that will keep the markets concerned, they’ll be closely watching the plantings, progress, and weather throughout the growing season.”

Davis says the other big news in the Prospective Plantings Report was the projected increase in the cotton crop. USDA is projecting 12.6 million acres planted to cotton in 2011, up 15% from last year, Texas is leading the way with 548-thousand additional acres:

”...uniformly throughout the south, cotton acreage increased, but in cotton about 50% of your production, or planted acres, come from Texas. And so Texas is kind of like your major league home run leader, the folks that hit the most home runs, also tend to strike out a lot.”

If weather problems plague the Lone Star State’s cotton crop and hamper production cotton stocks could be very tight this year.

South Dakota corn growers say they’ll plant 850-thousand more acres - the largest increase expected in 2011. Corn acreage is expected to increase 500-thousand acres in Iowa and 450-thousand in North Dakota. Each state is expected to see increased cotton acreage.

This report provides the first official - survey-based estimates of 2011 acreage plans for corn, all wheat, winter wheat, durum wheat, other spring wheat, oats, barley, flaxseed, cotton, rice by length of grain classes, oats, all sorghum, sweet potatoes, dry edible beans, soybeans, sunflower, peanuts and sugarbeets - as well as acreage for harvest of hay and tobacco. NASS surveyed approximately 85-thousand farm operators across the United States in late February and early March.

N.C. farmers intend to plant more acres of cotton, sweet potatoes, wheat this year

North Carolina farmers say they will plant more acres of cotton, sweet potatoes and wheat this year compared with 2010, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Prospective Plantings report released today.

Farmers intend to plant less corn, soybeans and peanuts, the report said.

Cotton growers intend to plant 750,000 acres this year, 36 percent higher than last year’s acreage and the most since 2006.

“With cotton prices hovering close to $2 a pound, it’s not surprising to see farmers planning to grow more of it this year,” said Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler.

Wheat already is in the ground, and its 700,000 acres represent a 40 percent increase over last year’s total and match the 2009 amount. The dip in wheat acreage in 2010 was the result of poor field conditions in the fall of 2009, Troxler said. “It was too wet to plant. But this past fall, conditions were good and wheat prices are still strong,” he said.

Farmers intend to plant 60,000 acres of sweet potatoes, up 5,000 from last year. North Carolina leads the nation in sweet potato production, and acreage has increased each year since 2005. Troxler attributes the growth to higher demand for sweet potatoes, both domestically and internationally.

Acreage of flue-cured tobacco is forecast to increase modestly this year, to 168,000 acres. Burley acres will remain unchanged at 2,300.

With cotton acreage growing, something had to give, which explains the 6 percent decrease in soybean acreage and 7 percent drop in peanut acreage, Troxler said. Corn acreage could drop by 2 percent. “We basically ran out of acres for soybeans, peanuts and corn,” he said. “There are only so many acres out there that can go into producing field crops, so you’ve got to have a tradeoff.

“I think we’re going to max out our available acreage this year,” Troxler said. “Farmers might break out whatever ground they think they can do something with.”

Troxler pointed out that weather, input costs and changes in commodity prices still could affect the acreage planted. “We’ll know more June 30, when the next USDA acreage report comes out,” he said.

The report is available online at http://www.ncagr.gov/stats/release/CropRelease03.pdf.

Planting Intentions for SC 2011 - report released

The March 31st, USDA - South Carolina crop intentions report indicates SC farmers intend to plant more corn, cotton, soybeans, wheat, and peanuts. Producers also intend to increase the number of acres to be cut for hay, while tobacco acreage intentions are down and oat acres remain unchanged from 2010.

Wheat intentions are 200,000 acres, up 38% from 2010.

Soybean acreage is expected to total 510,000 acres, up 10% from 2010 but actually down 14% from the 2009 acreage.

Corn growers currently estimate 360,000 acreas in 2011, up 3% from 2010 acreage.

For the full SC report, click here...

Thursday’s report also Contained Some Surprises

Along with the Prospective Plantings report - USDA released a new grain stocks report Thursday. USDA Chief Economist Joe Glauber says the numbers surprised some analysts and the markets. He says the report showed a tighter situation than a lot of people were expecting.Corn stocks were down 15-percent from last year as of March 1st at just over 6.5-billion bushels:

“That implied about a 3.6 billion bushel disappearance for second quarter, just enormous usage.”

In fact, USDA says it’s the largest quarterly use of corn ever. Glauber says the message of the report is simple, there’s strong growth in demand despite high prices for all commodities.

Viginia's Soybean, Cotton & Corn Acreage Intentions are Up!

Virginia’s soybean producers intend to increase acreage in 2011 to 590,000 according to the results of a survey conducted March 1 by the USDA/NASS Virginia Field Office. If realized, planted acreage would be 30,000 acres above last year.

Virginia’s cotton producers expect to plant 125,000 acres, up 51 percent from last year. Corn acreage is estimated to be 510,000 acres, an increase of 20,000 acres from 2010. Peanut producers intend to plant 14,000 acres, a decrease of 4,000 acres from last year.

Tobacco acreage intentions devoted to flue are 18,500 acres, an increase from last year’s acreage of 17,500. Fire-cured tobacco producers intend to harvest 550 acres, a 100 acre decrease from last year. Burley producers intend to harvest 1,650 acres this year which is an increase of 50 acres from 2010.

For the full report, click here...

More Stories