US farmers to plant 92.2m acres of corn

31 March 2011 15:46  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS)--US farmers intend to plant 92.2m acres (37m ha) of corn in 2011, the second-largest planted crop on record, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said on Thursday.

The 92.2m acres is a 4.3m acre increase from the 87.9m acres planted in 2010, and is second only to the 93.5m acres planted in 2007.

Corn futures prices were modestly lower, down about 4 cents/bushel, in early trading at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange following release of USDA's planting intentions report.

Acreage increases of 250,000 or more are expected in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio and South Dakota. The largest decrease is expected in Texas, down 150,000 acres.

At a predicted yield of 163 bushels/acre, the 2011 corn crop would produce 13.83bn bushels, assuming an 8% harvest loss for silage and other crop loss such as disease or storm damage.

Intended plantings for soybeans is estimated at 76.6m acres, 1% lower than last year's USDA pre-planting estimate.

Wheat planted area is estimated at 58m acres, up 8% from last year, USDA said. Winter wheat, at 41.2m acres, makes up most of the wheat total.

Cotton acreage is estimated at 12.6m acres, 15% higher than in 2010.

By: Frank Zaworski
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