Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler sits down each week with Southern Farm Network’s Rhonda Garrison to discuss “Today’s Topic.”
North Carolina farmers are planning to plant 100,000 acres of peanuts this year, according to the USDA’s Prospective Plantings Report. That’s a 22 percent increase over 2011 and the highest acreage for the crop since 2008.
The state also will see modest increases in acres for corn and soybeans compared with 2011.
Farmers intend to plant 900,000 acres of corn, which is 3 percent more than last year. Soybean plantings are forecast to be up 4 percent, to 1.43 million acres. And sweet potato acreage is forecast to grow by 3 percent.
High prices prompted cotton farmers to plant more than 800,000 acres of the crop last year. This year, farmers say they will plant 700,000 acres, a 13 percent drop.
Flue-cured tobacco, a crop devastated by Hurricane Irene in areas east of Interstate 95, also will see a drop in acreage this year. Plantings are forecast to be 150,000 acres, a 10,000-acre drop from last year.
Click below to listen to Commissioner Troxler and Rhonda talk about North Carolina farmers’ planting intentions. If you’re a farmer, send us a comment and tell us what you’re planning to grow this year.
[Audio:http://info.ncagr.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/Troxler_4-3.mp3 |titles=Today’s Topic for April 3]
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