USDA forecast likely to show more corn acreage
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The U.S. Agriculture Department will give a preview on Thursday of how many acres of corn and other major crops farmers in Minnesota and elsewhere intend to plant this year.
The USDA outlook is expected to show another increase in corn acreage as high prices for the grain encourage more farmers to grow it.
Corn is Minnesota's leading cash crop, valued at more than $8 billion in 2012.
State farmers have increased their corn acres nearly 25 percent over the last decade. Last year state farmers planted nearly 8.75 million acres of corn, along with almost 7 million acres of soybeans and about a million and a half acres of wheat.
Private forecasts are predicting that total U.S. corn acres will increase by about 1 percent this year.
The forecasters also predict that if drought diminishes, farmers will harvest a record crop next fall. That large supply could push corn prices down from the historic highs of the last two years.
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