Minnesota farmers intend to plant 8.2 million acres of corn for all purposes in 2016, 100,000 acres more than last year’s actual planted acres, according to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service – Prospective Plantings report.

The annual NASS report is based on the voluntary responses from approximately 2,000 Minnesota producers.

The report provides an indication of the acres farmers intend to plant in the 2016 crop year.

Actual plantings will depend upon weather, economic conditions and the availability of production inputs at the time producers must make their final planting decisions.

Farmers in Minnesota intend to plant 7.4 million acres of soybeans, down 3% from 2015.

Minnesota farmers plan to plant more corn in 2016

Intended plantings of additional crops are:

•Spring wheat, 1.35 million acres, down 130,000 acres from 2015.
•Oats, 200,000 acres, down 80,000 acres.
•Barley, 100,000 acres, down 35,000 acres.
•Sugar beets, 444,000 acres, up 1,000 acres.
•Sunflowers, 96,000 acres, down 5,000 acres.
•Oil sunflowers, 75,000 acres, down 2,000 acres.
•Non-oil sunflowers, 21,000 acres, down 3,000 acres.

Minnesota farmers intend to harvest 1.70 million acres of dry hay in 2016, up 8% from last year. If realized, this would be second smallest number of acres harvested, behind only last year’s record low.

Across the U.S., corn planting for all purposes in 2016 is estimated at 93.6 million acres, up 6% from last year. If realized, this will represent the highest planted acreage in the United States since 2013, and will be the third highest planted acreage in the United States since 1944.

Soybean planted area for 2016 is estimated at 82.2 million acres, down less than 1% from last year. Compared with last year, planted acreage intentions are down or unchanged in 23 of the 31 estimating states.

All wheat planted area for 2016 is estimated at 49.6 million acres, down 9% from 2015.

The 2016 winter wheat planted area, at 36.2 million acres, is down 8 percent from last year and down 1% from the previous estimate. Of this total, about 26.2 million acres are Hard Red Winter, 6.60 million acres are Soft Red Winter, and 3.37 million acres are White Winter.

Area planted to other spring wheat for 2016 is estimated at 11.3 million acres, down 14% from 2015. Of this total, about 10.7 million acres are Hard Red Spring wheat. The intended Durum planted area for 2016 is estimated at 2 million acres, up 3% from the previous year.