per ac\text{per ac}

per acre

Number per areaCost per areaexact by definition

The count per acre is exactly 1 ÷ 4046.8564224 per square metre, about 2.471 × 10⁻⁴. North American row crops are planted and counted this way — 32,000 seeds/ac is a normal corn population.

1 per ac\text{per ac} (Number per area)0.00024710538 per m2\text{per m}^{2}
1 $/ac\text{\$/ac} (Cost per area)2.4710538 $/ha\text{\$/ha}

About the per acre

Plant population per acre is the number a planter is set by and a stand is judged against, and it is checked in the field by counting a known fraction of an acre rather than a whole one.

The standard trick is the 1/1000th acre: 43,560 ÷ 1000 = 43.56 square feet. In 30-inch rows that is 17 feet 5 inches of a single row; count the plants along that length, multiply by 1000, and the answer is plants per acre directly.

The row length changes with spacing — 15-inch rows need 34 ft 10 in, 20-inch rows 26 ft 1 in — and getting it wrong scales the whole stand count by the same error.

One plant per acre is 2.471 per hectare, so a 32,000/ac corn population is 79,000/ha.

As a unit of cost per area

Cost per acre is exactly 1 ÷ 4046.8564224 of cost per square metre. It is the basis on which North American input costs, custom rates and cash rents are all quoted, and the number a cost-of-production budget is built from.

One per acre in every number per area unit

0.000247105per square meter (per m²)
2.47105per hectare (per ha)
1per acre (per ac)this unit
0.0000229568per square foot (per ft²)
0.0229568per thousand square feet (per 1000 ft²)

One per acre in every cost per area unit

2.47105per hectare ($/ha)
1per acre ($/ac)this unit
0.000247105per square meter ($/m²)
0.0229568per thousand square feet ($/1000 ft²)