Tobacco plantings are down this year compared to 2009
The June acreage report was released yesterday, detailing the planting intentions for several major crops in North Carolina.This report is used for planning purposes and also has a short effect on commodity prices on Wall Street. This report is an update to the Prospective Planting report released by USDA in late March. A follow-up report of surveyed yields will come out in mid-August.
The highlights of the report are:
- Farmers are expected to grow 50,000 more acres of corn than last year. The total this year will be around 920,000 acres.
- Cotton growers intend to plant 570,000 acres of cotton. This is 52 percent higher than last year and is 30,000 more acres than reported in March.
- There are about 95,000 acres of peanuts planted, which is up 42 percent from last year.
- This will be the largest sweet potato crop since 1950, with 50,000 acres planted.
- Soybean plantings are down 14 percent from last year, with 1.55 million acres this year.
- There isn’t a change in hay acreage since last year. Producers expect to cut 847,000 acres this year.
- Winter wheat plantings were down 26 percent from last year.
- Tobacco acreage is down. Flue-cured tobacco is down 6 percent, and there will be 1,100 fewer acres of burley tobacco planted this year.
The complete acreage report can be viewed online at: www.ncagr.gov/stats/release/CropRelease06.pdf.