With November corn futures topping more than $4 per bushel, it's a certainty that Delta farmers will significantly increase their corn acreage this spring, an agricultural expert said Monday.
"We'll probably see corn acreage go up two or three times over 2006," said Jerry Singleton, an agent with the Leflore County Extension Service.
In 2006, Leflore County farmers planted 12,500 acres of corn. This year, Singleton expects that number to approach 30,000 acres.
Although $4 corn futures don't translate into farmers getting that amount, farmer Billy Whittington said farmers might get as much as $3.50 to $3.75 per bushel.
He said farmers will plant more corn simply because the price for it is high. "Corn is high, and farmers will react like the market wants them to."
Whittington said his own corn acreage will increase from around 10 percent in 2006 to as high as 20 to 25 percent this year.
Erle West Barham declined to talk about his corn acreage planting plans but said, "It appears there's going to be a big corn crop."
Nationally, experts are predicting a record yield for corn this year.
Whittington said soybean prices also are up, helped along by rising corn prices. He said that is based on competition for available acreage between the two crops.
"Corn and soybeans have been maintaining higher prices since last fall, which is unusual," Singleton said.
Cotton acreage will be down in the county this year because of its cost of production per pound and its low price, he said.
Singleton also said the county's fall wheat crop increased from 1,500 acres in 2005 to between 4,000 and 6,000 acres in 2006.
That crop will be harvested in May.
Singleton said farmers are so interested in growing corn that on Thursday the Extension Service will hold a teleconference with Erick Larson, a state corn specialist, based in Starkville.
The conference, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 9 a.m. and run through noon at the service's office at 309 W. Market St.
Singleton said if enough farmers show interest, the conference will likely reconvene after lunch.
For more information on the corn teleconference scheduled for Thursday, call the Extension Service at 453-6803.
