Producers surveyed across the United States intend to plant an estimated 1.5 million acres of peanuts in 2018, down 18 percent from last year, according to the Prospective Plantings report released recently by the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).
Georgia will still lead the nation in peanut planted acres with an intended 720,000 acres, even with a 14 percent decrease. Arkansas and Oklahoma growers intend to plant the same acreage as 2017. Two states with the largest decrease in planted peanut acreage include Mississippi at a 32 percent reduction and Texas at 31 percent.
The Prospective Plantings report provides the first official, survey based estimates of U.S. farmers’ 2018 planting intentions. NASS’s acreage estimates are based on surveys conducted during the first two weeks of March from a sample of approximately 82,900 farm operators across the United States.
In other crops, farmers intend to plant an estimated 89 million acres of soybeans, down 1 percent from last year; 88 million acres of corn, down 2 percent from last year and 13.5 million acres of cotton, up 7 percent from last year.
The Prospective Plantings and all other NASS reports are available online at www.nass.usda.gov.