USDA shares how much farmers intend to plant this growing season

MARYLAND – The U.S. Department of Agriculture released their findings for their Prospective Plantings report.

This is where farmers tell the department how much they think they will grow based on outside factors, such as weather and fertilizer costs. In the report, it said farmers are expected to plant 2% less acres of corn than last year, 15% less acres of barley than last year, and 12% less acres of winter wheat than last year.

“The farming community is not adverse to adversity, they are always dealing with some type of adversity and they always have to make decisions whether they are dealing with low prices or high prices of something else that they need,” Shareefah Williams, Maryland and Delaware Statistician of the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, said.

While farmers expect to plant less acreage of some crops, the amount of hay area harvested is estimated to be up 6% from last year.

Williams said farmers can end up changing their minds on how many acres of crops will be grown, so we should look at the June survey to get a better understanding of how things will look.