Corn Planting Intentions

Well the USDA’s Annual Perspective Planting Report was released yesterday and indications are for more than 93 million acres of corn to be this spring, up 6 percent from last year which if realized that would be the highest planted acreage since 2013. Winter wheat acres are estimated to be planted on 36.2 million acres, or down 8 percent from last year and the lowest winter wheat acreage in more than 100 years.

Rob Johansson, USDA Chief Economist, saying one factor that may have farmers leaning toward more corn planting is the lower price for many production inputs.

 

Johansson: “One thing that has certainly happened is that energy prices, fertizler prices and a lot of input prices have continued to come down and stay down. That helps crops like corn relative to other crops just because corn is a fairly intensive user of inputs and so as those input costs come down, it makes growers look upon corn more favorable than say soybeans.”

 

In Colorado, corn stocks on March 1, 2016 were 62 million bushels, down 2 percent from March 1, 2015. All corn stocks stored on farms amounted to 33 million bushels, down 9 percent from a year ago.

All wheat stocks in Colorado on March 1, 2016 were 41.66 million bushels, up 34 percent from March 1, 2015. All wheat stocks stored on farms amounted to 10.50 million bushels, up 22 percent from a year ago.