Growing Positive on Corn
Posted: April 8, 2008
In March 2007, the USDA stated that growers intended to plant 90.5 million acres of corn. Given that farmers had planted 78.3 million acres in 2006, this was a very optimistic prediction. This past month, the projection from USDA was 86 million acres, down from last year but still way above what was seen before.
High input costs, especially fertilizer, are greatly to blame, but the National Corn Growers Association has held that the number of planted corn acres will be above the USDA prediction. Today, we have further confirmation, via the Associated Press.
Darrell Good, University of Illinois agricultural economics professor:
“The pendulum has swung decidedly in favor of corn at this point. For a lot of the central and northern Illinois farms, corn pencils out easily to be $200 an acre more profit than soybeans.”
Last year, the final corn planting was 3.1 million acres over and above the USDA’s prediction. Question now is — how high in 2008?
Time to break another record, growers!