USDA Predicting Larger Corn, Soybean Harvest

crops

The Department of Agriculture expects a larger corn and a record soybean harvest in the most recent round of monthly reports. USDA forged against expectations and raised corn production to an estimated 14.1 billion bushels and soybeans to a record 4.4 billion bushels. USDA is forecasting the average corn yield at 169.0 bushels per acre, and the soybean yield at 49.9 bushels per acre. Production for the 2017-18 corn crop increased 31 million bushels from the August projection, but still six percent lower than the 2016-17 crop. Yield is expected to be lower, but overall crop projections by USDA put the crop at third-largest on record. The projected range for the season-average corn price received by producers was lowered 10 cents on both ends to a range of $2.80 to $3.60 per bushel. The farm price for soybeans was also lowered 10 cents a bushel to an average of $9.20. As for cotton, USDA estimated larger production, exports, and ending stocks relative to last month. However, USDA says those projections came before Hurricane Harvey, adding the agency will go back to collect harvested acres for cotton for Texas and Louisiana for the October Crop Production report.