July 23, 2009

The US Department of Agriculture is going back to farmers in several states to get a more accurate picture of how much corn and sorghum they are planting this year, the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service said Wednesday (July 22).

 

USDA's NASS released its annual Acreage report on June 30, but said Wednesday that "variable weather conditions in key crop-growing regions" are behind the need to update that report.

 

"The agency will ask growers to update their reported acres planted to corn in seven states: Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio and Pennsylvania," NASS said. "Growers in Illinois and Missouri will also be asked to update their reported acres planted to sorghum."

 

The acreage update is scheduled to be released in USDA Aug. 12 Crop Production report.

 

The June 30 acreage report predicted farmers would plant 87.035 million acres of corn in the US this year. That's 1.053 million more acres than farmers planted last year.