US corn planting 81% complete, outpacing 2009 levels

10 May 2010 22:09  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS news)--US corn growers have planted 81% of their 2010 crop, far ahead of the 46% planted by this time in 2009, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said on Monday.

Over the last five years, US growers have planted an average of 62% of the corn crop by 9 May.

Dry weather and an early warm-up of soils in the midwest provided good planting conditions in all of the 18 top corn and soybean states surveyed by the USDA.

US farmers were expected to plant a total of 88.1m acres (35.7m ha) to corn this year, an earlier USDA survey said.

Corn emergence had already reached 39% in the top 18 corn growing states, the USDA said. That compares with only 13% emerged at the same time a year ago, and the 5-year average of 21%.

Turning their attention to soybeans, growers as of 9 May had planted 30% of an expected 78.1m-acre soybean crop.

The USDA said that 15% of an expected record 78m-acre soybean crop had been planted by 2 May, compared to only 5% on that date last year.

The biofuels industry is a major end user of US corn and soybeans, behind livestock feed.

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By: Frank Zaworski
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