About 3 percent of the crop is up, a USDA report says
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Corn plants are beginning to emerge across the United States.
About 3 percent of the national corn crop is up, the USDA said in its April 23 Weekly Weather and Crop Bulletin.
With the Prospective Plantings report indicating farmers would plant about 92 million acres of corn in 2023, this means corn plants have emerged across 2.76 million acres.
To put that number into context, Michigan farmers planted 2.35 million acres of corn in 2022.
Most of the corn planted in Texas has emerged.
About 60 percent of that state’s corn crop is up. This is an increase from 58 percent last year.
With prospective corn planting for Texas pegged at 2.05 million acres, this means corn has emerged on 1.23 million Texas acres.
One quarter of North Carolina’s corn is up.
Farmers are reporting about 25 percent of their corn emerged, the USDA’s report says.
With North Carolina farmers prepared to plant about 960,000 acres of corn, this means corn has emerged across 240,000 acres.
Other states reporting double digit corn emergence are Tennessee and Missouri (11 percent each) and Kentucky at 12 percent.
The only other state to report any corn emergence is Kansas with 3 percent.
Spring wheat plants have also started to emerge.
Only 1 percent of the 2023 spring wheat crop is up, the USDA says in its report.
With spring wheat acres estimated at 10.57 million acres, this means spring wheat has emerged on 105,700 acres.
Spring wheat in Washington is the furthest along.
Around 10 percent of the wheat in that state has emerged.
Farmers in the state intend to plant 440,000 acres of spring wheat. This means about 44,000 acres of spring wheat have emerged.
The only other state to report any spring wheat emergence is Idaho with 1 percent.