Farmers got off to the fastest start ever for this year's planting season, seeding 5 percent of the corn crop by April 1 following the warmest March on record, according to a Reuters poll of 12 analysts. The US Agriculture Department will release its first weekly crop progress report of the season at 4 pm EDT (2000 GMT) on Monday.
Farmers were expected to plant the largest corn acreage in 75 years this spring in a bid to replenish the tightest stocks in 16 years, the USDA said in its 'prospective plantings' report on Friday. Analysts were closely monitoring the pace of planting to see how much of their acreage intentions farmers could meet. Analysts estimates of corn planting progress last week ranged from 3 percent to 7 percent. Typically, the first USDA progress report of the season does not include a corn planting update. But the government said it may provide that information in Monday's report as the higher-than-usual soil temperatures allowed some farmers to get an early jump on their seeding tasks.
USDA has only included corn planting progress in its first report of the season four times before, most recently in 2001. On average, corn plantings were 2 percent complete when USDA included them in the first report. The high was 3 percent, in 1999. The government said it asked farmers for their planting data and will include the figures in the report if it gets a big enough report.
The planting will be led by farmers in southern areas because many insurance contracts for farmers in the Midwest stipulate that they will not be covered if they plant before a certain date and the crop fails. "If you are in the area where you can get total insurance, I think the planting was pretty aggressive," said Don Roose, analyst with US Commodities. "The soil temperatures, even in the Midwest, are right. It is just that you do not have that replant option if you plant before your insurance date. That is the issue."
For key corn areas such as Iowa, many farmers will have to wait until April 11 if they want full insurance, Roose said. After that, plantings will increase rapidly. Roy Huckabay, analyst for The Linn Group said he did not think USDA would release a national average plantings for corn this week but would release state-by-state plantings. He said corn plantings in Illinois may be 5 percent complete. Some rainfall was forecast in the US Midwest this week, said Jason Nicholls, meteorologist for AccuWeather. The moisture could slow down farmers who were hoping to start planting in the first week of April before they started planting.
"Nothing exciting this week, ample moisture with separate storm systems today and tomorrow and again Wednesday and Thursday. Rainfall of around 0.50 inch in the northern Midwest and 0.50 to 1.25 inches elsewhere," Nicholls said. Temperatures in the northern Midwest could fall below the freezing mark next week, which will prevent planting until soil temperatures warm up again. New-crop December corn futures at the Chicago Board of Trade fell 5 percent in March due to expectations that the weather would spur a huge boost in corn seedings this spring, leading to a bumper harvest and huge supply of corn in the fall. The benchmark old-crop May contract dropped only 2.1 percent during March.