American farmers will harvest monster corn and soybean crops this year, including the largest soybean crop ever, at 4.5 billion bushels, and the third corn crop in four years to top 15 billion bushels, projected the Agriculture Department on Thursday. Season-average prices for the crops would fall for the second year in a row from the spike in commodity markets created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
At its annual Agricultural Outlook Forum, the USDA said the corn crop would total 15.04 billion bushels, down 2 percent from last year’s record-setting crop, while the largest-ever soybean crop would be 8 percent larger than last year’s. The projections assume normal weather and trend-line yields.
The wheat crop was forecast at 1.9 billion bushels, the largest crop in five years, with drought easing in the southern Plains. The cotton crop, projected at 16 million bales weighing 480 pounds each, would be nearly 29 percent larger than it was last year. Corn, soybeans, wheat, and cotton are the four most widely planted U.S. crops.
Based on the USDA’s projected crop size and average price, this year’s corn crop would be worth $66.2 billion at the farm gate, 10 percent less than the 2023 crop. Soybeans would be worth $50.5 billion, down 4 percent. Wheat would be worth $11.4 billion, down 13 percent. The USDA projected average prices of $4.40 a bushel for corn, $11.20 for soybeans, and $6.00 for wheat, down 40 cents a bushel for corn, $1.45 for soybeans, and $1.20 for wheat.
To read the USDA outlook for grains and oilseeds, cotton, dairy, sugar, and livestock and poultry, click here.