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N.C. farmers say they’ll plant more peanuts, corn, soybeans this year; wheat acreage also up
Story Date: 4/2/2012
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Source: NCDA&CS, 3/30/12
North Carolina farmers may plant 100,000 acres of peanuts this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Prospective Plantings Report.
The state also will see modest increases in acres for corn and soybeans compared with 2011. Farmers intend to plant fewer acres of cotton and tobacco, the report showed.
“The forecast for peanut acreage is 22 percent above 2011, a year that produced strong yields for North Carolina growers,” said Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. “The projected acreage for peanuts is the most in our state since 2008.”
Farmers intend to plant 900,000 acres of corn, 3 percent more than last year, when drought and Hurricane Irene led to a yield that was 25 bushels per acre below the 10-year average.
Soybean plantings are forecast to be up 4 percent, to 1.43 million acres.
Sweet potato acreage is projected to grow by 3 percent.
Wheat plantings, which occurred in the fall and winter, are up 19 percent, totaling 830,000 acres, according to the survey.
High prices prompted cotton farmers to plant more than 800,000 acres of the crop last year. This year, farmers say they will plant 700,000 acres, a 13-percent drop.
Flue-cured tobacco, a crop devastated by Hurricane Irene in areas east of Interstate 95, also will see a drop in acreage this year. Plantings are forecast to be 150,000 acres, a 10,000-acre drop from last year.
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