US farmers plant most acres of corn since 1936

Corn prices have fallen on the news that US farmers have planted the most acres of corn since 1936.

The US Department of Agriculture reported that farmers have planted 97.4 million acres of corn, the nation’s biggest crop, this year to replenish low corn stockpiles, Bloomberg News reported.

As of June 1, the US corn supply was at its lowest level in 16 years –2.76 billion bushels – the USDA said, according to Bloomberg News.

Last year, a drought in the Farm Belt drove US corn prices to a record $8.3125 a bushel on Aug. 21, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“Farmers planted more corn, soybeans and wheat than almost anyone expected after all the rain earlier this year,” Dale Durchholz, the senior analyst at AgriVisor LLC in Bloomington, Illinois, told Bloomberg News. “The US crop potential is getting bigger, and that will keep the markets on the defensive and put farmers in a more aggressive selling mood.”

Commodity trader Greg Goebel told Minnesota Public Radio that high corn yields will likely help US farmers sell more corn abroad."We had a lot of people talking about our lower grain exports this year," Goebel said. "But the reason they were so low is that we did not have any extra grain to export to foreign countries – which may increase next year, probably helping to support our prices.”

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