If the initial planting intentions report is any indication, then U.S. peanut growers are following the advice of industry experts who had recommended an acreage increase this year of 5 to 8 percent.
According to USDA’s first intentions report of 2010, peanut growers intend to plant 1.20 million acres, up 8 percent from last year. An increase in planted area is expected in the Southeast and the Virginia-Carolina regions, while peanut acreage is expected to decrease in the Southwest.
Marshall Lamb, research director for the National Peanut Research Laboratory in Dawson, Ga., says growers in the Southeast might see an opportunity to push their acreage increase even further.
In 2010, says Lamb, the U.S needs production of roughly 1.866 million farmer stock tons of peanuts. “Added with the carry-forward, that would give us a supply of 2.6 million tons. With a demand of 2.1 million tons, that gets us back to the 500,000-ton carry-out that we need. That’s when we start seeing the $500 to $525 per-ton contract prices. We need a production of 1.8 million tons. With an average yield of 3,000 pounds per acre, we’d need 1.227 million acres in 2010 — that’s an increase of 11.5 to 12 percent over last year.”
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