Slow Corn Planting in North Dakota Concerns Farmers

Even though the market is encouraging farmers to plant corn, Mother Nature is not cooperating, especially in the northwestern Corn Belt. The corn in North Dakota was 20% planted (66% average) and the corn in Minnesota was 60% planted (86% average) as of last Sunday. Combined, there were about 6 million acres of corn left to plant in those two states.

The final planting date for crop insurance coverage for corn in most of North Dakota is May 25th except for a few counties in the southeastern corner of the state where it is May 31st. For South Dakota, the final planting date for corn is May 25th for most of the state and May 31st for southeastern South Dakota. In Minnesota, the final planting date is May 25th for about the northern one-third of the state and May 31st for the southern two-thirds of the state. The final planting date in Iowa is May 31st.

Farmers in North Dakota were scheduled to plant 3,600,000 acres of corn, South Dakota was 6,200,000 acres and Minnesota was 7,800,000 acres. Farmers are likely to plant corn later than normal this year, but some of those intended corn acres could be switched to soybeans or taken as prevent plant, especially in North Dakota and Minnesota.

Therefore, I am current estimating the 2022 U.S. corn planted acreage at 89.0 million acres and the corn harvested acreage at 81.1 million acres (91.2% of planted), but there is the possibility that the corn planted acreage could decline. The 2022 U.S. corn yield was left unchanged this week at 177.0 bu/ac resulting in a total production of 14.35 billion bushels.

Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.

Tags: corn, Market, plant, corn belt, South Dakota, North Dakota