Acres report shows more corn got planted

Reports released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture today helped clarify the current corn situation -- although there's a lot of growing season left and weather will no doubt play an increasingly important role in the market. Click here for the acreage report.

In Nebraska, USDA said corn producers planted 9.0 million acres of corn this year. That's about 4 percent below year ago, but up about 200,000 acres from the the March planting intentions report. It estimated that 8.8 million acres in Nebraska will be harvested.

“Despite the wet spring, Nebraska corn producers were able to respond to market demands and increase corn plantings in what turned out to be a narrow window,” said Kelly Brunkhorst, ag program manager for the Nebraska Corn Board in a news release. Brunkhorst said Nebraska corn plantings are the second highest since the 1930s, with last year’s 9.4 million acres being the highest.

Nationally, USDA said 87.3 million acres of corn was planted, down 7 percent from last year’s crop, but 1.3 million more than March intentions. This is the second highest since 1946 (last year's 93.6 million was the highest). That was good news because USDA lowered its harvested acres estimate 2 points due to last week's survey of growers in flooded areas. It said harvested acres would be 78.9 million, down 9 percent from last year but still the second highest since 1944 (last year's 86.5 million was highest).

Using USDA's figures, that means flooding has reduced harvested acres by about 1.7 million, although the more detailed July survey (released in August) will better nail it down.

University of Illinois extension economist Darrel Good said corn prices would move lower with the report (which they did). He also noted that with a slowdown in corn use already happening, year-end stocks will likely be at least 100 million bushels larger than the 1.433 billion bushels already projected.

USDA also said corn stocks in all positions on June 1 totaled 4.03 billion bushels, up 14 percent from June 1, 2007. Of the total stocks, 1.97 billion bushels are stored on farms, up 8 percent from a year earlier. Off-farm stocks, at 2.06 billion bushels, are up 21 percent from a year ago.