Farmers Planted Less Corn
American farmers planted 3.7 million fewer acres of corn in 2014, a four percent decrease from 2013, according the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Acreage report released Monday.
Total corn plantings in the United States total 91.6 million acres for the lowest planted acreage since 2010. Notably, it still represents the fifth-largest U.S. corn acreage planted since 1944.
National Corn Growers Association President Martin Barbre tells us,
In 2014, U.S. corn farmers are well on the way to again growing an abundant crop. While critical points in the season remain ahead of us, Americans can be confident that bountiful stockpiles and adequate plantings will ensure our corn security for the year to come.
The USDA's estimate for 2014 is for 91.6 million acres were planted in field corn. Given the projected harvested corn acreage released in the report of 83.8 million acres and the most recent USDA estimate average national yield of 165.3 bushels per acre, farmers could harvest 13.8 billion bushels.
The largest acreage decreases were seen in North Dakota and Nebraska, where corn acreage decreased by 800,000 and 650,000 acres respectively.
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