Farmers Plant Corn Crop Fast

U.S. farmers last week, utilized a break in the rains to plant corn at a record pace, sowing an area equivalent to more than twice the size of Ireland with the grain to near catch-up on lost ground.

Growers had planted 71% of their corn crop by last Sunday, up from 28% the week before, USDA data showed. In getting 43% of their crop in the ground in one week, a little more than investors had expected, farmers at least matched the weekly record in terms of crop percentage variously reported to Agrimoney.com by brokers and academics at a 28% figure achieved in 2011, 42% in 1992 and 43% in 1992.

Given that farmers intend to plant 97.3m acres of corn this year, the highest since the 1930s, the advance is likely to prove a record in area terms too, implying the equivalent of 41.8m acres, or 16.9m hectares (169,000 square kilometers). An area of that size is equivalent to planting area the size of Florida, or Tunisia, in one week.