Florida ranks first in the nation for sweet corn production, but we also grow a little bit of field corn in the Sunshine State as well.
Not that the Corn Belt has to worry about losing its title to Florida. Only about 30,000 acres of field corn were harvested in Florida in 2011 with a yield of 100 bushels per acre. Most of that acreage can be found along the I-10 corridor across the top of the state, from Pensacola to Jacksonville.
As I was Googling around for 2013 corn harvest information, I came across this article and video by Mace Bauer, who is an agronomy extension agent in Columbia County, located right at the intersection of I-10 and I-75. He says their “acreage was up about 30% in this area due to spring prices favoring corn on irrigated land.”
Mace shot his “tractor drivers view” of the north Florida corn harvest at 83 Farms, LLC in Lake City. He says the corn was being loaded directly on to rail cars to be taken into North Georgia and the Carolinas to meet the needs of the livestock industries in that area. “Following the Midwest Drought of 2012, many end users are scrambling to meet grain needs before the large harvest in the Midwest begins,” Mace says, adding that area farmers were happy to deliver.