By Emmy Powell
Communication Specialist

The planted acreage for corn, soybeans and wheat in Texas are forecast down this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) 2024 Prospective Plantings Report.

The report gives a first look at what crops farmers intend to plant in 2024.

Corn
Texas farmers are expected to plant 2.1 million acres of corn this year. That’s down 400,000 acres from last year.

Farmers surveyed across the U.S. intend to plant 90 million acres of corn in 2024, down nearly 5% from last year.

Betty Resnick, an economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation, said the report should be bullish for the price of corn.

“Corn is going to see a reduction of 4.9% in acres compared to last year, down to 90 million acres, which was below industry expectations heading into the report,” she said.

Sorghum
Farmers across the U.S. plan to plant 11% fewer acres of sorghum this year for a total of almost 6.4 million acres.

Texas sorghum acreage is also expected to decline from 2 million acres in 2023 to 1.5 million acres in 2024.

Soybeans
Although soybean acres are forecast up for the U.S., they are down in Texas.

This year, Texas farmers intend to plant 100,000 acres of soybeans. That’s down 25,000 acres from 2023.

Wheat
Texas wheat acreage also is expected to decline from 2023. Farmers intend to plant 5.9 million acres, down from 6.4 million last year.

“Wheat will decrease, and then we’re also going to see cotton increase, in addition to some changes in other crops. One major finding that caught my eye was that there’s a decrease in overall principal crop acreage, and a reduction of 6.3 million acres or 2%,” Renick said.

Cotton
U.S. cotton acreage is forecast to increase 4% to 10.673 million acres. However, Texas planting intentions are projected to be 1% lower. Texas upland cotton intended acres are forecast to be 5.5 million acres, 50,000 acres less than last year, while pima cotton projections have increased to 40,000 acres this year.

USDA report
The Prospective Plantings, Grain Stocks and all other USDA reports are available online at www.nass.usda.gov.

View the 2024 Prospective Plantings Report.