Iowa 2012 Corn Acre Planting Projections

With a tight supply and declining production in South America because of an ongoing drought, farmers in the United States are expected to boost the amount of acres they plant in corn, with Iowa farmers contributing significantly to those upwardly revised numbers.

Even so, the results of a coupld of recent surveys, one an online survey and the second a survey conducted at the Iowa Power Farming Show, show farmers in Iowa are looking to plant about 300,000 more acres than originally thought, a smaller increase than expected.

Iowa farmers also said they'll probably plant an additional 50,000 acres of beans.

What surprised those conducting the surveys is there has been a lot of talk by farmers in Iowa about boosting the number of acreage planted in corn. Evidently that was more talk than action being seriously considered by the farmers.

At the national level, farmers have been estimated they're going to boost corn acres planted by about 94.9 million acres, an increase of 2.9 million acres over 2011.

For soybeans, there isn't near as much change, with the number of acres projected to be planted nationally to rise by just over 500,000 to 75.5 million for 2012. In 2011, the number of acres planted in soybeans in the United States was just under 75 million.

The decision to plant more acreage isn't without risk though. If weather conditions are good, the increased number of acres planted in corn could push the price down.

Iowa Corn Production Drops in 2010

Corn production in Iowa for 2010 was down from 2009 levels, coming in at 2.2 billion bushels, falling 267,000 bushels.

Final 2010 crop numbers released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture show more soybeans were produced statewide and less corn compared to the previous year.

Local commodity prices responded in the exact opposite way some people might think.

Typically, commodity supplies affect prices. In this case, cash corn at East Central Iowa Cooperative based in Hudson dipped since Tuesday's report and soybeans have gone up.

Corn at Monday's close was $6.96 a bushel, compared to $6.87 Thursday afternoon in Hudson. Soybeans steadily climbed about 10 to 15 cents a bushel each day since Monday, from $13.01 a bushel to $14.41 Thursday afternoon.

When it comes to grain, a local commodity expert said supply is only a part of pricing.

"It's a small piece of the puzzle," said Brad Stewart, ECIC grain merchandiser. "We used to look at supply and demand to see what prices should be. Now, (buyers) look at next year to see what other countries will need for protein."

Iowa farmers produced 496.2 million bushels of soybeans last year, 10 million more than 2009. The average yield remained the same at 51 bushels per acre. Harvested acres increased by 200,000 in 2010 to 9.73 million.




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