Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler sits down each week with Southern Farm Network’s Rhonda Garrison to discuss “Today’s Topic.”
North Carolina farmers intend to plant more cotton, peanuts, soybeans and wheat this year, according to USDA’s Prospective Plantings report.
Farmers expect to plant fewer acres of corn, sweet potatoes and flue-cured tobacco, the report said.
From the report:
- Growers say they will plant 340,000 acres of cotton this year, 21 percent more than in 2016.
- Peanut acreage is forecast to increase 9 percent this year, to 110,000 acres.
- Soybean plantings are expected to total 1.75 million acres, which is 4 percent higher than a year ago.
- Farmers have planted 460,000 acres of winter wheat, a 10 percent increase over 2016.
- Prospective corn plantings total 950,000 acres, a 5 percent decrease from last year.
- Sweet potato growers anticipate planting 90,000 acres, an 8 percent drop.
- Flue-cured tobacco plantings are forecast at 160,000 acres, 3 percent lower than a year ago.
Click on the link below to listen to Commissioner Troxler and Rhonda discuss some of the reasons behind N.C. farmers’ planting intentions.
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