USDA Corn Plantings Projected To Be 95.9 Million
In its March 31 report, USDA listed prospective 2012 corn plantings by state. The six states with the most acres are:
Iowa:14.6 million acres,- Illinois: 12.5 million acres,
- Nebraska: 10.3 million acres,
- Minnesota: 8.7 million acres,
- Indiana: 6.1 million acres, and
- South Dakota: 5.5 million acres.
These six states have had the same rank in terms of planted acres in each year since 2000. In other words, Iowa has had the most acres in each year since 2000, Illinois the second most number of acres, and so on. For the top 15 ranked states in 2012, there have been relatively minor shifts in ranks between 2000 and 2012. When ranks are compared between 2000 and 2012, only North Dakota changed ranks by more than two places.
Stable shares across states have two implications. Most of the increase in corn planting is not occurring in new areas where corn has not been produced before. Rather, corn plantings are becoming more intense in areas where corn has been produced before. As a result, land productivity where corn is being grown has not changed much over time. As planted acres increase, this suggests that national expected yield per acre remain the same because of productivity changes in farmland. However, national expected yield per acre may change because use of more intense corn rotations could impact yields.