Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler sits down each week with Southern Farm Network’s Rhonda Garrison to discuss “Today’s Topic.”
North Carolina farmers harvested 820,000 acres of corn last year, with an average yield of 117 bushels per acre. Good prices, good yields and a continuing demand for the crop are creating talk that the state could see an increase in corn acreage this year.
While national stockpiles of corn are falling and the Midwest is still recovering from the 2012 drought, the worldwide demand for corn continues to be high. North Carolina farmers could be looking to benefit from this scenario.
The state isn’t a major national player when it comes to growing corn, Troxler says, but we’ve got a homegrown market for it. The state ranks second nationally in hog production and typically is in the top three in poultry production. So demand for grain here is very high. This demand could entice more farmers to grow corn. There’s also speculation that more farmers will be looking to corn as a second crop to follow up their wheat harvest.
Two other crops used for livestock feed – soybeans and sorghum – also had good years in 2012. When the USDA’s Prospective Plantings Report is released in late March, it will be interesting to see what the projected acreage of these three crops will be.
In the audio link below, Commissioner Troxler talks with Rhonda about the speculation over corn and the demand for grain in North Carolina.
[Audio:http://info.ncagr.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/Troxler_2-19.mp3|titles=Today’s Topic for Feb. 19]
Southern Farm Network is a division of Curtis Media Group.