Researchers: More farm acres to be planted in Missouri this spring

COLUMBIA, MO. -- Tight global stocks and high prices will drive tough competition for planting acreage this spring. "With markets are strong as these, we'd like to plant pretty much more of everything", says Pat Westhoff, director of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri. "But it's tough to increase all those at the same time. There's only so much land out there." FAPRI -- much in line with predictions by the USDA -- predicts Missouri will experience 2011 increases in corn and wheat acreage, a drop of about 150,000 acres in soybeans, upticks in cotton and hay, and a downturn in rice. The result, when factoring in changes in conservation lands and subtracting double croppings, is an overall increase in acreage planted of about 140,000 acres, or about 1 percent more than the 14.3 million acres planted last year.