OMAHA (DTN) -- Farmers got their work done in the spring on more acres this year as the Farm Service Agency (FSA) reported prevented-planting acres this spring at 3.56 million acres -- nearly half the unplanted acreage from 2022.
Teeth gnashing over prevented planting acres is almost a rite of passage unto itself every spring. Every late snow or heavy rain leads to prognostications about high prevented-planting (pp) acres coming as a result. Farmers foiled those worries this spring.
States where farmers found themselves with the most challenges getting crops planted: North Dakota (918,008 acres); Texas, (841,890 acres); South Dakota, (336,890 acres); Arkansas (226,281 acres) and Oklahoma (203,918 acres). Those five states accounted for more than 70% of the prevented-planting acres reported.
The 3.56 million prevented-planting acres largely hit corn at 1.4 million acres, while unplanted upland cotton acreage came in at 464,901 acres. Prevented-planting acres for soybeans was 458,915 acres.
COMPARED TO LAST YEAR
In 2022, farmers reported 6.39 million prevented-planting acres. North Dakota alone had 2.37 million acres listed as prevented planting.
Texas is the one state that saw a jump this year compared to last. Farmers in parts of the Lone Star state saw both extended drought and flooding from heavy rain events in part of the state this spring. Texas went from 82,746 pp acres in 2022 to 84,890 pp acres this year. That hit several crops, including 354,189 acres for upland cotton and 223,044 acres for wheat, and another 155,773 acres for corn.
PRIOR YEARS
2019 was the bad year when extensive flooding led to 19.6 million prevented-planting acres.
In 2020, farmers reported 10.2 million pp acres.
In 2021, farmers reported just 2 million pp acres.
FSA ACREAGE
FSA planted acres always contrasts some with acreage reported by the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates. In some cases, the difference is because the WASDE takes into account acreage from farmers not involved in FSA programs.
CORN: FSA overall reported 93 million planted crop acres, compared to 94.1 million acres in the WASDE
SOYBEANS: FSA acreage was 82.6 million while the WASDE reports 83.5 million acres.
WHEAT: FSA reports 53.19 million acres while the WASDE reports 49.1 million acres.
The full FSA report can be found at https://www.fsa.usda.gov/…
Chris Clayton can be reached at Chris.Clayton@dtn.com
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