U.S. corn growers expect to plant 93.6 million acres of corn this year, according to the Prospective Plantings report released by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.
If the government prediction holds true, this season will mark the first increase in corn acres since 2012 and the third largest corn acreage since 1944.
Driven by the expectations of higher returns in 2016 compared to other crops, corn growers in 41 of the 48 contiguous states expect to either maintain or increase the number of acres they plant to corn.
Farmers surveyed from Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, and North Dakota plan to increase their corn acreage by 400,000 or more acres in 2016.
Soybean growers plan to plant 82.2 million acres of soybeans, a less than one percent decrease from 2015. In Louisiana, Minnesota, and Mississippi, farmers expect to reduce their soybean acreage by 200,000 acres or more.
Despite the overall reduction in acreage, farmers in North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin expect to see record-high soybean acreage in their states.
