Producers surveyed across the United States intend to plant an estimated 97.0 million acres of corn in 2020, up 8% from last year, according to the Prospective Plantings report released today by the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).
Planted acreage intentions for corn are up or unchanged in 38 of the 48 estimating states. South Dakota, with 6.00 million acres, had the largest increase of 1.65 million acres from 2019. If realized, the planted area of corn in Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, and Oregon will be the largest on record.
Soybean growers intend to plant 83.5 million acres in 2020, up 10% from last year. If realized this will be the third highest planted acreage on record. Compared with last year, planted acreage is expected to be up or unchanged in 22 of the 29 states estimated.
The Prospective Plantings report provides the first official, survey based estimates of U.S. farmers’ 2020 planting intentions. NASS’s acreage estimates are based on surveys conducted during the first two weeks of March from a sample of approximately 80,000 farm operators across the United States. Other key findings in the report are:
- All wheat planted area for 2020 is estimated at 44.7 million acres, down 1% from 2019. This represents the lowest all wheat planted area since records began in 1919.
- Winter wheat planted area, at 30.8 million acres, is slightly below the previous estimate and down 1% from last year. This is the second lowest planted acreage on record.
- Area planted to other spring wheat for 2020 is expected to total 12.6 million acres, down 1% from 2019.
- Durum wheat is expected to total 1.29 million acres for 2020, down 4% from last year.
- All cotton planted area for 2020 is expected to total 13.7 million acres, less than 1% below last year.
NASS today also released the quarterly Grain Stocks report to provide estimates of on-farm and off-farm stocks as of March 1. Key findings in that report include:
- Corn stocks totaled 7.95 billion bushels, down 8% from the same time last year. On-farm corn stocks were down 13% from a year ago, but off-farm stocks were up less than 1%.
- Soybeans stored totaled 2.25 billion bushels, down 17% from March 1, 2019. On-farm soybean stocks were down 20% from a year ago, while off-farm stocks were down 15%.
- All wheat stored totaled 1.41 billion bushels, down 11% from a year ago. On-farm all wheat stocks went down 8% from last year, while off-farm stocks went down 12%.
- Durum wheat stored totaled 51.5 million bushels, down 31% from March 1, 2019. On-farm Durum stocks were down 42% from a year ago, while off-farm stocks of Durum wheat were down 17%.
The Prospective Plantings, Grain Stocks, and all other NASS reports are available online at
www.nass.usda.gov.