Washington, June 30, 2011 – U.S. farmers planted 92.3 million acres to corn in 2011, up 4.6 percent from last year, according to the Acreage report released today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).

Driven by the higher commodity prices, U.S. corn growers increased the planted acreage by 4.1 million acres from last year. This is a third consecutive year of increased corn acreage and is the second-largest corn acreage in more than 60 years, behind 2007.

Overall, farmers planted 319.2 million acres to major crops this year. This is 4.63 million acres less than they indicated in the March 2011 Prospective Plantings report, but is a 2.45 million acres increase from 2010. The most significant acreage increases were reported in South Dakota and Kansas, where farmers planted 0.6 and 0.4 million acres more, respectively, than in 2010.

NASS acreage estimates are based on surveys of approximately 70,500 farm operators across the United States, conducted during the first two weeks of June. Principal crops included in the survey are corn, sorghum, oats, barley, winter wheat, rye, Durum wheat, other spring wheat, rice, soybeans, peanuts, sunflower, cotton, dry edible beans, potatoes, sugarbeets, canola and proso millet, as well as harvested area for all hay, tobacco and sugarcane.

Acreage, Grain Stocks and all other NASS reports are available online at www.nass.usda.gov