With the warmer spring days recently, farmers across the Volunteer State are busy planting. Row crop farmer Brent Griggs of Gibson County says he’s thankful they had the chance to start early.
“The ground was dry and warm, and the conditions were right,” said Griggs. “So, we got started there and we’ll see what happens.”
Griggs and his family farm roughly 5,000 acres of corn, wheat, soybeans and cotton. According to a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, farmers across the U.S. are projected to grow more corn this year compared to last year, and Griggs says that’ll be the case for their farm as well.
“Last year we were heavy on beans and didn’t get all the corn planted we wanted to due to some of the weather,” said Griggs. “So, this year, corn just worked better for a rotation and projected a little better than some of our beans did, and we’re also down on our wheat acres as well, so we’ll definitely be a little heavier on corn.”
Amy McNeil, the new executive director of the Tennessee Corn Promotion Board, agrees. She says Tennessee looks to be following the national trend of planting more corn.
“Nationally, corn will be up 5%, and then, specific to Tennessee, we’re looking at a 29% increase,” said McNeil. “While this is higher than 2024, this is closer in line to where we were in 2023.”
One of the reasons corn is trending that way is because of the price compared to other commodities. It’s something Griggs and others are definitely considering.
“The price is not really where we want it to be, but it’s still a little better in comparison to beans,” said Griggs. “It seems like we have a little more potential with our corn yield and expected conditions.”
With commodity prices still really low, farmers are looking for the best-case scenario to make a profit this year.
“Farming is a hard, hard game sometimes, but we just have to keep trying to do our best and try to make the most we can,” said Griggs. “We’ve got to have faith and keep moving forward.”
