Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler sits down each week with Southern Farm Network’s Rhonda Garrison to discuss “Today’s Topic.”
USDA released its 2013 Prospective Plantings report March 28, and North Carolina farmers have indicated they intend to plant more corn, wheat and tobacco this year.
Corn plantings are projected to total 890,000 acres, up 3 percent from 2012. Flue-cured tobacco growers say they’ll plant 170,000 acres, which is 4 percent more than last year.
Winter wheat already has been planted, and there are 960,000 acres in the ground this year. That’s 16 percent more than a year ago.
As is usually the case, when acreage for some crops increases, there will be a drop in plantings of other crops.
Cotton growers have indicated they’ll plant 450,000 acres this year. That’s 23 percent less than a year ago.
North Carolina could see just 80,000 acres of peanuts this year, a decrease of 25 percent.
Soybean plantings are projected to total a little less than 1.6 million acres, down about 1 percent from last year. And sweet potato growers have said they’ll plant 58,000 acres. That’s about 5,000 fewer acres than last year.
Commissioner Troxler says everyone should keep in mind that weather, input costs and changes in commodity prices still could affect the number of acres that actually get planted. A better idea of planted acres will be in the USDA acreage report that comes out June 30.
Click on the audio player below to listen to Commissioner Troxler and Rhonda discuss the planting intentions and the reasons behind projected increases and decreases in crop acreage.
[Audio:http://info.ncagr.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/Troxler_4-2.mp3|titles=Today’s Topic for April 2]
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