U.S. farmers begin 2023 planting season

Apr 05, 2023

Growers have planted about 2 percent of the crop, the USDA reports

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

The 2023 planting season is underway.

U.S. farmers have planted about 2 percent of the 2023 corn crop, the USDA’s Weekly Weather and Crop Bulletin for April 4 says.

The Prospective Plantings report indicated farmers are prepared to plant 92 million acres of corn.

This means U.S. producers have planted about 1.84 million acres in 2023 so far. For context, in 2022, farmers in Kentucky planted 1.44 million corn acres.

Farmers in Texas have planted the most corn thus far.

Growers there have planted 57 percent of their acres, the USDA’s crop bulletin says.

With Texas farmers indicating they’ll plant about 2.050 million acres of corn, this means 1,168,500 acres of Texas corn is in the ground.

Last year at this time, Texas producers had planted 54 percent of their corn acres.

Only four other states are recording any corn planting progress at this time.

Farmers in Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina and Tennessee have planted 1 or 2 percent of their respective corn acres.

U.S. winter wheat is beginning to head.

About 6 percent of the winter wheat crop has headed, the USDA’s report says.

U.S. farmers planted 37,505,000 acres of winter wheat. This means about 22,503,000 acres has headed.

Winter wheat in California is the furthest along in this category.

Around 30 percent of the state’s winter wheat, or roughly 99,000 acres, of winter wheat has headed.

Approximately 29 percent of winter wheat in Texas has headed. As has 3 percent of the winter wheat crop in Arkansas and 2 percent of the crop in North Carolina.

Overall, most of the U.S. winter wheat, or 36 percent of the crop, is in fair condition.

That’s a 2 percent improvement from this time last year.

Video: Why Invest in Canada’s Seed Future? | On The Brink: Episode 3

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On The Brink is a year-long video series traveling across Canada to meet the researchers, breeders, farmers, seed companies, and policymakers shaping the future of Canadian plant breeding. Each week, a new story. Each story, a piece of the bigger picture.

Episode 3 is above. Follow Seed World Canada to catch every episode, and tell us: Do you think the next generation will have the tools they need to success when they takeover? How is the future going to look?