South Dakota producers recently indicated they plan to plant 12.9 million acres of corn, soybeans and wheat in 2020, plus an additional 620,000 acres of sunflowers, 345,000 acres of oats and 45,000 acres of barley, as well as 270,000 acres of sorghum and 11,000 acres of dry edible peas. The projections also included 3.4 million acres of all types of hay will be harvested as well.
These planting intentions were released by the United States Department of Agriculture-National Agricultural Statistics Service (USDA-NASS) on March 31st after surveying South Dakota farmers and ranchers. Approximately half of the surveys were answered and provided data for this report.
Planting intentions were similar to 2019, with corn acres equaling 2019 intentions at 6 million acres.
Soybean acres were up 4 percent to 5.4 million acres, and all wheat acre intentions dropped to 80 percent of 2019 acres.
While field conditions and weather this spring will ultimately determine which crops are actually planted, the report provides early market information they can use to develop their individual pre-harvest marketing plan.
Figures 1, 2, and 3 provide a visual of the planting intentions reported by NASS since 2015.
Combined, South Dakota farmers have planned on planting 12.6 to 13.2 million acres of corn, soybeans and wheat during 2015 to 2020. Wet conditions and drought ultimately determine the final planting numbers and actual harvested acres of each crop.
