Agricultural News
US Corn Acreage Estimates at 97 Million Acres- Higher Than Expected- Oklahoma Has Third Most Cotton and Winter Wheat Acres in the US
Tue, 31 Mar 2020 21:31:38 CDT
The USDA released the 2020 Prospective Plantings Report on Tuesday- here is the overview at the front of the report from NASS:
Corn Planted Acreage Up 8 Percent from 2019
Soybean Acreage Up 10 Percent
Sorghum Acreage is Up 11 Percent
All Wheat Acreage Down 1 Percent
All Cotton Acreage Down Less Than 1Percent
Corn planted area for all purposes in 2020 is estimated at 97.0 million acres, up 8 percent or 7.29 million acres from last year. Compared with last year, planted acreage is expected to be up or unchanged in 38 of the 48 estimating States. The estimate was provided to USDA by farmers before the significant fall off in ethanol useage- which could hurt corn prices in the year ahead. Several analysts suggest that 97 million acres is much higher than what the likely final planted number will be.
Two crops that could gain from the backing away from corn- sorghum and soybeans.
USDA indicates an 11 percent increase in sorghum acres for 2020. Tim Lust with the National Sorghum Producers says of that increase- "While we are pleased to see a projected year-over-year increase in acres, a lot has changed in our world since the surveys used to help formulate this report were taken in February, and we feel there is greater opportunity for increased sorghum acres in the United States for the 2020-2021 marketing year.
"When the analysis was conducted in February, sorghum prices did not reflect basis appreciation from export sales that occurred since that time. Significant purchase activity by China, approaching 1 mmt over the course of the last 7 weeks, has driven basis improvements, and these purchases account for roughly 10 percent of the sorghum produced last year."
Soybean planted area for 2020 is estimated at 83.5 million acres, up 10 percent from last year. Compared with last year, planted acreage is expected to be up or unchanged in 22 of the 29 estimating States.
All wheat planted area for 2020 is estimated at 44.7 million acres, down 1 percent from 2019. This represents the lowest all wheat planted area since records began in 1919. The 2020 winter wheat planted area, at 30.8 million acres, is down 1 percent from last year and down slightly from the previous estimate. Of this total, about 21.7 million acres are Hard Red Winter, 5.69 million acres are Soft Red Winter, and 3.42 million acres are White Winter. Area expected to be planted to other spring wheat for 2020 is estimated at 12.6 million acres, down 1 percent from 2019. Of this total, about 11.9 million acres are Hard Red Spring wheat. Durum planted area for 2020 is expected to total 1.29 million acres, down 4 percent from the previous year.
All cotton planted area for 2020is estimated at 13.7 million acres, down less than 1 percent from last year. Upland area is estimated at13.5 million acres, down less than 1 percent from 2019. American Pima area is estimated at 228,000 acres, down 1 percent from 2019.
As far as the state of Oklahoma is concerned- Oklahoma Upland cotton is forecast at 680 thousand acres, up 6 percent from last year. That makes Oklahoma the third largest state, acreage wise, in the US behind Texas and Georgia.
Oklahoma growers intend to plant 400 thousand acres of corn, up 8 percent from last year. Producers intend to plant 340 thousand acres of sorghum this year, 13percent above last year. Oklahoma is the fourth laregest sorghum state by acres- behind Kansas, Texas and Colorado.
In overall hay production, Oklahoma is predicted to bale hay on 2.8 million acres, off seven percent from last season. That acreage number is the fourth largest total in the US- Oklahoma is behind Texas, South Dakota, and Missouri and is tied at 2.8 million acres with Montana.
Last fall, Oklahoma wheat farmers actually inceased planted acres by 100,000 to 4.3 million acres- up two percent from 2019 but under the 2018 level of 4.4 million acres. Oklahoma has the third most winter wheat acres, behind Kansas and Texas.
To review the complete report- click or tap here.
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