Nebraska corn farmers planted 9.4 million acres of corn this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today, which is the most acres planted to corn in the state since the 1930s – and equaling the number of acres planted in 2007.

Planted acres are 6.4 percent greater than a year ago when Nebraska farmers planted 8.8 million acres. USDA’s planting report in March estimated that Nebraska farmers would plant 8.8 million acres again this year.

Harvested acres in the state are estimated at 9.2 million, up from last year’s 8.6 million.

“In most parts of the state, Nebraska farmers saw good spring weather that allowed them to get planters rolling early,” said Don Hutchens, executive director of the Nebraska Corn Board. “At the same time, corn futures moved up a bit and encouraged farmers to plant a few extra acres since Mother Nature was cooperating. The result is the most planted acres in Nebraska since the 1930’s, which equals the acres planted in 2007.”

Nationally, USDA said 87.0 million acres of corn were planted this year, up 1 percent from last year and 2 million acres more than what USDA reported in its March planting intentions report. This is the second-largest planted acreage since 1946, behind 2007.

USDA said harvested acres across the country would be 80.1 million, up from last year’s 78.6 million.

“Although there have been pockets of severe weather in the state, Nebraska’s corn crop is off to a tremendous start. With the additional acres and more good weather, we’re looking at a very large crop across the state and throughout the country as a whole,” Hutchens said.

With good growing conditions the rest of this summer, farmers across the country may produce a very large crop, in the 12 billion to 13 billion bushel range, and one of the largest on record, said Kelly Brunkhorst, ag program manager for the Nebraska Corn Board. “When combined with a 1.6 billion bushel carry over from last year, corn farmers will once again be able to meet all demands for corn during the coming year,” he said.

He said should weather cooperate, Nebraska farmers could be looking at a harvested crop of 1.4 billion to 1.5 billion bushels.

“Nebraska farmers today are putting new technologies to work in ‘sustaining innovations’ that allow us to grow more corn on fewer acres. As an example, we only produced 250 million bushels in 1932 when we planted 10.7 million acres compared to the 9.4 million today and we expect to produce 1.5 billion bushels, a 500 percent increase on fewer acres,” concluded Hutchens.

In a separate report, USDA said US corn stocks as of June 1 totaled 4.27 billion bushels, up 6 percent a year ago. On-farm storage totaled 2.21 billion bushels, up 12 percent from a year ago, while off-farm stocks, at 2.06 billion bushels, are up slightly. The March to May 2009 disappearance, or corn use, was estimated at 2.69 billion bushels, compared with 2.83 billion bushels during the same period last year. That shows that corn use was off slightly this year over last.

Corn stocks in Nebraska totaled 486 million bushels, up 23 percent from last year’s 395.2 million. USDA said 250 million bushels were being stored on Nebraska farms, an increase of 38.9 percent from last year’s 180 million, while 236 million were stored off farm, an increase of 9.7 percent from last year’s 215.2 off farm.

The Nebraska Corn Board is a self-help program, funded and managed by Nebraska corn farmers. Producers invest in the program at a rate of 1/4 of a cent per bushel of corn sold. Nebraska corn checkoff funds are invested in programs of market development, research and education.