Grain-market watchers lashed out at the U.S. Department of Agriculture after the agency on Wednesday tweeted that farmers planted 91.7 million acres of corn this year, citing data that many traders believe is inaccurate.
According to Bloomberg, while corn has long been the most widely grown U.S. crop, producers this year struggled to get seeds in the ground amid record spring rainfall.
The USDA in its annual acreage report on June 28 signaled that its seeding forecast was incomplete, saying that its figures included acreage for which 17% of the land hadn’t yet been sown at the time of data collection.
The agency also announced a resurvey of planted area, with the results to be published on Aug. 12.
