July 1, 2009

Farmers in the US are planting more corn in 2009 than they did last year, the US Department of Agriculture said Tuesday (June 30) in its annual acreage report.

Early in the planting season, cold temperatures and too much rain slowed planting in the central and eastern Corn Belt, Ohio Valley and northern Great Plains, the USDA said, but conditions improved in late May.

Farmers are now forecast to plant 87.035 million acres of corn in the US this year, the USDA said. That's 1.053 million more acres than farmers planted last year.

The USDA prediction for an increase in corn planting this year went the opposite direction than analysts expected. Estimates from the 18 analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires ranged from 82.474 million to 86 million acres.

"On May 10 corn planting was 48 percent complete, down 23 points from (the five-year) average," the USDA said in the annual report. "In late May, however, drier conditions allowed farmers to make rapid progress. Farmers reported that 97 percent of the intended corn acreage had been planted at the time of the survey interview, compared with the 10-year average of 98 percent."

Three of the biggest predicted increases in acreage are in Nebraska, Missouri and Illinois, according to new USDA data. Nebraska farmers are now expected to plant 9.4 million acres of corn, up from 8.8 million in 2008. Illinois farmers are projected to plant 12.3 million acres, up from 12.1 million last year. Farmers in Missouri are expected to plant 3.1 million acres, up from 2.8 million.

"This is the second largest [corn] acreage since 1946, behind 2007," the USDA said. "Growers expect to harvest 80.1 million acres for grain, up 2 percent from last year.