FARGO, N.D. (Ag News 890) – On Wednesday, the USDA released the long awaited Prospective Plantings Report for the 2021 planting season.

The report states:

• Corn Planted Acreage Up Less than 1 Percent from 2020
• Soybean Acreage Up 5 Percent
• All Wheat Acreage Up 5 Percent
• All Cotton Acreage Down Less than 1 Percent

Corn planted area for all purposes in 2021 is estimated at 91.1 million acres, up less than 1 percent or an increase of 325,000 acres from last year. Compared with last year, planted acreage is expected to be up or unchanged in 24 of the 48 estimating States.

Soybean planted area for 2021 is estimated at 87.6 million acres, up 5 percent from last year. Compared with last year, planted acreage is up or unchanged in 23 of the 29 estimating States.

All wheat planted area for 2021 is estimated at 46.4 million acres, up 5 percent from 2020. This represents the fourth lowest all wheat planted area since records began in 1919. The 2021 winter wheat planted area, at 33.1 million acres, is up 9 percent from last year and up 3 percent from the previous estimate. Of this total, about 23.2 million acres are

Hard Red Winter, 6.42 million acres are Soft Red Winter, and 3.48 million acres are White Winter. Area expected to be planted to other spring wheat for 2021 is estimated at 11.7 million acres, down 4 percent from 2020. Of this total, about 10.9 million acres are Hard Red Spring wheat. Durum planted area for 2021 is expected to total 1.54 million acres, down 9 percent from the previous year.

All cotton planted area for 2021 is estimated at 12.0 million acres, down less than 1 percent from last year. Upland area is estimated at 11.9 million acres, up slightly from 2020. American Pima area is estimated at 142,000 acres, down 30 percent from 2020.

Find the full report here.