By Mary Hightower
U of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture
LITTLE ROCK — Planting season is underway for Arkansas farmers, with corn growers first to getting seed in the ground, according to the Crop Progress report from the National Agricultural Statistics Service.
The statistics service, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture issues weekly crop progress and condition reports during the growing season.
Monday’s report showed Arkansas corn 2 percent planted, compared to 1 percent at this time last year and the 1 percent five-year average.
The report also said that 3 percent of the state’s winter wheat was forming grain heads. That compared to 1 percent at this time last year and to the zero percent five-year average. More than half of the winter wheat crop — 58 percent — was rated in good to excellent condition.
Corn
Jason Kelley, wheat and feed grains agronomist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, said planting corn now is not unexpected.
“It’s 80 degrees and it’s dry and it’s mid-March,” Kelley said. “It’s hard to not plant something, but producers still have concerns about a potential late season cold snap, so up to date, planting has started slow but will be picking up speed as we near late March.”
In some years, corn planting may start on a very limited basis as early as late February in the southern tier of counties in Arkansas, but not this year due to wet weather.
“With corn, our planting date studies have shown there is a fairly wide window when we can maximize yields, generally up to late April, so planting early may be beneficial some years, but getting the optimum stand is what we are really shooting for,” Kelley said
“I think overall the acreage will be up this year,” he said. “2024 was a little bit of a down year as far as acreage with 500,000 acres. In 2023, we had about 750,000 acres.
Kelley said he expected 2025 to see “a little bit of a rebound” given a somewhat more optimistic outlook for corn prices than other commodities.
Rice
While corn was the only crop to make the report for planting, Jarrod Hardke, rice extension agronomist for the Division of Agriculture said there may have been two or three rice growers who got started last week.
This week, many rice growers were doing field prep, but “planting is beginning to pick up speed and by this coming weekend it will really be getting cranked up,” Hardke said.
Weather is a concern, with very low humidity and high winds. The March 14 storms that spawned deadly tornadoes, didn’t bring a lot of rain.
“Rains were variable with some growers receiving 1-2 inches while others may have technically gotten a little rainfall overnight, but by the morning they didn’t know whether they had or not because it was so dry,” he said.
Red flag warnings covered most counties of the state on Wednesday, with wind advisories covering the rest. The next opportunity for rain would be on Sunday.
“That rain will be welcome to put a little moisture back to the soil and encourage a bigger start to planting,” Hardke said.
Soybeans
Jeremy Ross, extension soybean agronomist, said soybean planting was just getting started.
“A lot of ground is ready to plant, but we didn’t see the February planting that we have seen the last two years due to rain events over the past month,” he said. “If the weather holds, we could have a significant portion of the soybean crop planted in the next few weeks.
“I’m anticipating soybean acreage to be about what we have seen the past two years,” Ross said. “Our acreage should remain around the 3 million acres mark, but we could see some changes one way of the other depending on how planting progresses over the next two months.
“We are just now getting into the early planting window for the southern part of the state, and we still have time to get the soybean crop planted to maximize yields,” he said.
Cotton and peanuts
“Both cotton and peanuts will start probably the third week of April,” said Zachary Treadway, extension agronomist for cotton and peanuts.
“If you’re planting past the last day of May you’ve gone too late,” he said. “In a perfect world all of our planting will come between April 20 and May 20 — that’s if the planting season is kind to us.”
“We have some issues last year where it was cool and rained and planting got dragged out and some planting got abandoned all together,” Treadway said.
Soil temperature is the cue for cotton growers to get seed in the ground. “They need a consistent 65 degrees at about four inches of soil depth, he said.
Treadway said that considering the market, he expects to see cotton acres decline slightly in Arkansas while peanut acres may increase.
Price and acreage rollercoaster
Scott Stiles, extension economics program associate, said the markets may do some reshaping of expected acres. USDA will issue its annual Prospective Plantings report on March 31, giving an overview of farmers’ intentions for the 2025 growing season.
Like Treadway, Stiles expected cotton acres to run lower.
The National Cotton Council “had Arkansas’ cotton acres down 7 percent to 604,000,” Stiles said. “That’s not a surprise and some think cotton acres may be even lower than that. Cotton prices for the 2025 crop touched 70 cents last Friday and again Monday but didn’t stay there long.
“With the heavy supply situation in cotton, there’s little incentive today for it to encourage acres. With so much of the U.S. cotton crop grown in Texas, we may see some weather-related price improvement later in the growing season,” Stiles said.
Corn and soybean prices peaked around February 20th, but “unfortunately, both of those have run out of gas,” Stiles said. There was quick run-up in rice last week, but that rally fell flat too.
“Corn is about 40 cents off its February highs and soybean about 60 cents off its highs,” he said.Since making a recent top March 11, new crop rice futures have pulled back about 23 cents per bushel. The commodities are nervously watching all the global trade dynamics and trying to figure it all out.
“Seasonally, we generally see prices for corn and soybeans work higher through planting and oftentimes peaking by mid-June if crop conditions are favorable,” Stiles said.
If there’s any good news to report, it’s probably the pullback in diesel prices.
“Diesel futures are trading around $2.20 today and that’s 45 cents off the January high,” Stiles said on Wednesday. “It’s a little relief there as field work gets underway.”
To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on X and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on X at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on X at @AgInArk.
About the Division of Agriculture
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s mission is to strengthen agriculture, communities, and families by connecting trusted research to the adoption of best practices. Through the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service, the Division of Agriculture conducts research and extension work within the nation’s historic land grant education system.
The Division of Agriculture is one of 20 entities within the University of Arkansas System. It has offices in all 75 counties in Arkansas and faculty on three campuses.
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture offers all its Extension and Research programs to all eligible persons without regard to race, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, or any other legally protected status, and is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.
