Washington, DC
March 31, 2009
The
U.S. Department of Agriculture expects that the total area
planted to corn and soybeans nationwide will hold steady in 2009
but that the area planted to principal crops will decline by
nearly 7.8 million acres, according to the Prospective Plantings
report released today by the National Agricultural Statistics
Service (NASS).
Farmers indicated their intention to plant 76 million acres to
soybeans in 2009. If realized, this would be the largest planted
area on record, just ahead of the 75.5 million acres planted
last year. Increases of 100,000 acres or more are expected in
Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina
and North Dakota. The largest decreases in soybean acres are
expected in Missouri and South Dakota, both down 150,000 acres
from 2008.
Growers plan to plant 85 million acres of corn, down 1 percent
from last year and down 9 percent from 2007. While lower corn
prices and unstable input costs may have slowed corn planting
somewhat, this would be the third-largest acreage since 1949,
behind 2007 and 2008.
Wheat acreage is expected to decline 7 percent, to 58.6 million
acres. Cotton plantings are also expected to be down 7 percent,
to 8.8 million acres – the smallest area since 1983.
Nationwide, NASS expects the total area planted to principal
crops to decline by approximately 7.8 million acres, or 2.4
percent, from last year. Included in this total are corn,
sorghum, oats, barley, winter wheat, rye, durum wheat, other
spring wheat, rice, soybeans, peanuts, sunflower, cotton, dry
edible beans, potatoes, sugar beets, canola and proso millet, as
well as harvested area for all hay, tobacco and sugar cane.
The Prospective Plantings report provides the first official
survey-based estimate of U.S. farmers’ planting intentions for
2009. NASS surveyed approximately 86,000 farm operators across
the United States during the first two weeks of March.
NASS will publish data on actual planted area in the Acreage
report, released June 30 at 8:30 a.m. EDT. All NASS reports are
available online at
www.nass.usda.gov.
Prospective Plantings:
http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/MannUsda/viewDocumentInfo.do?documentID=1136
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Additional
information re. soybean |
Source:
Monsanto Company
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In what will
likely
be a milestone year for U.S. planted acreage of
soybeans,
Monsanto is commercializing a milestone trait –
Genuity™
Roundup Ready 2 Yield.
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Genuity™
Roundup Ready 2 Yield is one of the first
biotech traits directly focused on delivering
more yield
– and more profit potential – for farmers.
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The trait
works by delivering
more beans per pod, which means
more bushels per acre, which results in more
profit potential.
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In four years
of Monsanto field trials in six states,
comparing near-isogenic lines,
Genuity
Roundup Ready 2 Yield™ soybeans
consistently delivered 7-11% higher yields than
Roundup Ready soybeans.
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In addition
to being the first year for the trait, this will
be the
first year
for use of the Acceleron Seed Treatment System.
-
As growers
continue to enhance agronomic practices to
achieve higher yield potential, the percentage
of soybean acres where a seed treatment is used,
has continued to climb over time. This year,
all soybeans with the Genuity Roundup Ready 2
Yield trait will feature the Acceleron Seed
Treatment System. This, along with increased
use on other soybean acres, could very well
result in
more treated
soybean acres than in any prior year,
potentially approaching 45 percent to 50 percent.
-
The Acceleron Seed Treatment
System for soybeans will feature a proprietary
fungicide combination in 2009. For 2010 and
beyond, Monsanto will continue to enhance
product options with the inclusion of compounds
for the control of key soybean insect pests and
active ingredients that improve plant health and
growth.
-
Higher yielding biotechnology
traits and improved agronomic practices, such as
the use of seed treatments, are important
components toward Monsanto’s goal of doubling
average soybean yield by 2030.
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