Little Change in Corn Area Intentions

WASHINGTON - Mar 31/03 - SNS -- This year's corn area in the United States is expected to come in at 79.0 million acres of corn for all purposes, according to the USDA's seedings intentions estimates, virtually unchanged from 2002 but 4% above 2001.

Expected acreage is up in the eastern Corn Belt as growers are switching back to corn after planting soybeans last year when persistent wet weather in the spring prevented them from seeding corn. However, all States in the Great Plains, except North Dakota, are decreasing their intended corn plantings as continued drought conditions are expected to persist into the 2003 crop year.

Farmers intend to plant 38% of their acreage with varieties developed using biotechnology, up 4 percentage points from 2002. If these intentions are realized, 26% of the acreage will be planted with varieties containing bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), up 4 points from last year.

Roughly 9% of the acreage will be planted with herbicide resistant varieties developed using biotechnology, unchanged from 2002. Stacked gene varieties, those containing both insect and herbicide resistance from biotechnology, will be planted on 3% of the acreage, up 1 point from the previous year.

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