Report: Corn, soybeans make big gains in 2012

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Look for more corn, soybeans and almost every other crop in the fields this year.

Statistics released by the National Agriculture Statistics Service Friday indicate North Dakota farmers anticipate planting record crops of corn and soybeans along with increased acres of all other crops except spring wheat.

“Spring wheat is down 150,000 acres from last year,” said Darin Jantzi, director of the North Dakota field office of NASS. “But a lot of crops are up compared to last year because there were so many acres lost to prevented planting last year.”

In 2011, 6.3 million acres of North Dakota farmland was not planted due to wet conditions. In the previous 10 years the average number of prevented-planting acres across North Dakota was about 1 million.

“There are a lot of optimistic farmers that hope they will farm more of their fields than last year,” Jantzi said. “The situation this year looks pretty similar to two years ago.”

That same optimism holds true in Stutsman County, according to Lance Brower, Stutsman County Extension agent.

“It is looking like prevented planting won’t be an issue,” he said. “Plus a lot of CRP is coming out. There will be more total acres farmed this year.”

Brower added there is still some inundated farmland from sloughs that remain larger than normal.

The increase in corn is the most dramatic this year. North Dakota farmers plan on planting 52 percent more of the crop this year for a total of 3.4 million acres. If farmers follow through with their planting intentions this would be a record high for corn acres.

Anticipated soybean acres are up 5 percent to 4.2 million acres. This is also a record high for the crop in North Dakota.

“The farmers are running the numbers,” Brower said. “You can make pretty good money on corn, as one crop phases in and another crop phases out.”

In this case, the crop phasing out is spring wheat. North Dakota farmers anticipate planting 5.5 million acres in 2012. This is a 3 percent decrease from last year.

“North Dakota is still a big player in spring wheat,” Jantzi said. “We grow almost half the country’s spring wheat but it is getting pressured by corn as a crop.”

The 2012 Prospective Planting report released Friday is the first gauge of what farmers plan to plant this spring.

“It is exactly what it says,” Jantzi said. “Prospective planting. We asked farmers what their intentions were as of March 1. Weather can be a big factor and markets could cause people to change their plans. It could all change by June 1.”

Sun reporter Keith Norman can be reached at 701-952-8452 or by email at knorman@jamestownsun.com

Tags: local news, news, crops, agribusiness