WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Two Purdue University agricultural economists will crunch U.S. Department of Agriculture planting intentions data and share their insights during an online meeting from 7-9 p.m. March 31.

Chris Hurt and Corinne Alexander will discuss the USDA’s “Prospective Plantings” report and offer marketing strategies on the same day the report is issued. Online participants can ask questions electronically and view and print Hurt’s and Alexander’s PowerPoint presentation. The meeting will be conducted using Adobe Connect, a Web conferencing program.

To participate in the live online meeting or watch an archived version later, log onto https://gomeet.itap.purdue.edu/march31outlook. Some county offices of Purdue Extension also plan to host the live Webcast. For more information, contact a Purdue Extension office.

The annual “Prospective Plantings” report estimates how many acres of corn, soybeans, wheat and other crops American farmers expect to plant each year. Acreage projections are based on a survey the USDA conducts with farmers across the country.

“The report is the first indication of what farmers are actually going to plant this year,” Alexander said. Farmers and commodities traders pay close attention to the planting intentions report, she added.

“We expect the report to have a major impact on markets,” Alexander said. “If you think back over the last couple of years, we’ve seen major acreage swings on the order of millions of acres moving out of corn or soybeans, or back into corn and soybeans and wheat, as well. We’re expecting the same sort of massive acreage shifts this year.”

In the 2008 planting intentions report, the USDA estimated that the nation’s farmers would plant 86 million acres of corn, 74.8 million acres of soybeans and 63.8 million acres of wheat. Farmers eventually planted 85.9 million acres of corn, 75.7 million acres of soybeans and 63.1 million acres of wheat.

Large acreage shifts are likely this year, Alexander said.

“We at Purdue are estimating that corn acreage will be down nationwide by about 1 million acres, soybeans will be up by 6 million acres and wheat will be down by 4 million acres,” Alexander said.

Those interested in watching the Purdue online meeting should have DSL/high-speed Internet access. Computers must have Adobe Flash Player installed to receive the Adobe Connect program. A free plug-in download of Adobe Flash Player is available at http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/

When logging in for the meeting, computer users should click “Enter as a Guest,” enter their name and then click the “Enter Room” button. Make sure computer speakers are plugged in and turned on to hear the presentation.

The 2009 USDA “Prospective Plantings” report can be accessed after 8:30 a.m. EST March 31 online at http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/MannUsda/viewDocumentInfo.do?documentID=1136

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Recent heavy rains have flooded 9 percent of the corn acreage, 9 percent of the soybean acreage and 5 percent of the winter wheat crop, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s crop report released June 16.

The southwest district of the state, which includes Evansville, Freelandville, Shoals, Stendal and Vincennes, received the most crop damage with 16 percent of the areas corn acreage flooded, as well as the soybean acreage. Six percent of the wheat acreage was reported as flooded in the southwest district.

The southwest district was followed closely by the southcentral district, in terms of crop acreage flooded — 13 percent for both corn and soybeans and 9 percent for flooded wheat acreage. The southcentral district includes the areas surrounding Leavenworth, Oolitic and Tell City.

These numbers come from questions added to the USDA’s weekly crop progress survey in Indiana.

“We added the flood numbers to the weekly crop progress report because everyone wanted to know how the floods were affecting Indiana,” said Greg Matli, deputy director of the Indiana office for USDA’s National Agriculture Statistics Service located at Purdue University. “Calls were coming in from the governor’s office, Farm Service Agency offices, Chicago Board of Trade and newspapers wanting information.

“There was obviously a demand and we already had the system in place to get that information, so we decided to add a few questions to our weekly survey and now people know what’s going on.”

Indiana has 97 percent of its corn planted with 93 percent emerged and only 55 percent of it is rated in good to excellent condition. Hoosier soybean growers have 80 percent of their crop planted with 70 percent emerged and 52 percent considered in good to excellent condition.