Corn haul a record for ’12

Crops in state produce marks

— As expected, Arkansas farmers set a new annual production mark for corn and came close to setting an overall record for soybeans despite record drought and heat in 2012.

Growers produced 123.7 million bushels of corn last year as they harvested 695,000 acres, the National Agricultural Statistics Service reported in its annual summary released Friday.

The acreage was a 34 percent increase over 2011. The state produced 73.8 million bushels in 2011 on harvests from 520,000 acres.

At the same time, the state produced 135.9 million bushels of soybeans as growers produced a record yield of 43 bushels per acre, up 4.5 bushels from the 2011’s yield, the service reported. The state’s record for soybean production is 144 million bushels, set in 1979.

Rice farmers also set a per-acre-yield record in 2012. The all-rice average yield is estimated at 7,470 pounds per acre - up 700 pounds per acre from 2011. Overall rice production totaled 96 million hundredweight, up 23 percent from the year before. Arkansas, the nation’s leading rice state, produced 51.8 percent of the 199.4 million hundredweight of rice produced by the United States in 2012, according to figures provided in the report’s summary.

And while the amount of Arkansas’ harvested cotton acreage decreased by 75,000 acres to 585,000 acres, the service said that increased yields would result in cotton production reaching 1.32 million 480-pound bales, up 3.4 percent compared with the 1.27 million bales produced in 2011.

The success of Arkansas’ farmers in 2012 contrasts with national production that saw overall declines in corn and soybeans.

The drought took its toll on the nation’s corn crop, reducing it to 10.8 billion bushels, compared with 12.4 billion in 2011. Soybean production also took a hit, dropping to 3 billion bushels from 3.1 billion produced in 2011, the service reported.

Whether farmers can duplicate the 2012 results in 2013 is uncertain, but two agricultural economists said the state’s growers will increase corn and soybean acreage while reducing the amount devoted to crops such as cotton and rice.

“The weather was absolutely perfect for corn in 2012,” said Scott Stiles, an extension economist for the University of Arkansas’ Division of Agriculture. “I think growers recognize everything went just perfectly and it will be difficult to have a repeat of those conditions this year.”

Last year, the crops were planted early, pollination came ahead of the worst of the heat and irrigation was in place to keep the plants going, Stiles said.

Even with the uncertainty about weather conditions during the 2013 growing season, farmers are attracted by commodity prices, and the success of corn and soybean acres in 2012, Stiles said. The outlook for future plantings indicates increases in corn acreage and some for soybeans, which will come at the expense of cotton acreage and to some degree rice, he said.

The move will vary from county to county, since soil conditions will dictate what is planted in place of rice or cotton, Stiles said.

Many long-term weather models are still showing the middle and upper midwest - prime corn and soybean states - very dry and not getting a lot of opportunity replace soil moisture prior to the start of the 2013 planting season, said Matt King, an economist with the Arkansas Farm Bureau.

But recent rains and forecasts indicate that Arkansas will be in good shape regarding its acquifers and soil conditions going into the 2013 season. In addition, he said, Arkansas farmers have adopted other practices to conserve water, including erosion controls and tail water recovery systems to maximize the benefits of the water they do apply.

King said having to deal with the drought resulted in farmers adjusting how they manage their crops.

“People have seen the benefits of really keeping up with their watering,” King said. The drought taught farmers not to wait to water. “You’re not waiting and hoping that that quarter, half an inch or inch of rain is going to come.”

King agreed with Stiles that the state is going to see significant changes in what farmers plant this spring. Both predicted more corn and soybean acreage and fewer acres devoted to rice and cotton. He said that current prices combined with forecasts have resulted in a number of Arkansas producers taking advantage of contracting early for corn and soybeans.

Not all Arkansas crops fared well in 2012. Livestock farmers suffered millions of dollars in losses because of the drought.

The state’s hay crop was hit hard by the drought, which parched fields across the state for most of the year. The statistics service reported that Arkansas’ hay production dropped 22.2 percent from 2.2 million tons in 2011 to 1.7 million tons in 2012.

The hay loss forced cattle farmers to cull their herds early and incur higher than expected costs to feed their remaining animals. A late September study by the University of Arkansas’ Division of Agriculture estimated the cattle industry in Arkansas saw losses totaling $128 million because of drought between August 2011 and July 2012.

Business, Pages 21 on 01/15/2013

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