Farmers this year planted the most corn since the waning days of World War II, outpacing already high expectations for the crop, according to a federal report issued Friday.

Fueled by high demand and high prices for corn, farmers planted an estimated 92.9 million acres of corn, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported. That’s 19 percent more than in 2006 and was well above an earlier government estimate.

The record for corn planting was set in 1944, as American farmers responded to a huge demand for the crop in war-torn Europe.