U.S. farmers will harvest their biggest corn and soybean crops ever – 14.093 billion bushels of corn and 3.812 billion bushels of soybeans, says Pro Farmer after a first-hand look at crops in the seven leading states. Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and Minnesota account for 70 percent of the corn and 62 percent of the soybeans grown in the United States.
“Odds heavily favor the 2014 corn crop setting a new yield record, yet challenging conditions since early spring in key western Corn Belt states may prevent this year’s harvested corn from eclipsing last year’s production record,” says Top Producer, a sister publication of Pro Farmer. While Illinois and Indiana have exceptional crops, Iowa is variable, rain washed away fertilizer in some Nebraska fields and South Dakota’s crop appears to be average.
There is little leeway for corn to set a record. The Pro Farmer estimate is in line with USDA‘s latest forecast of 14.032 billion bushels and 1.2 percent larger than the record 13.925 billion bushels of 2013. Barring catastrophic weather, the soybean crop easily should beat the record 3.359 billion bushels of 2009. Pro Farmer’s soybean estimate is nearly identical to USDA’s estimate of 3.816 billion bushels based on conditions on Aug 1.
Pro Farmer said its estimates assume normal weather through September. And it says its observations during the crop tour lead it to assume that soybean harvested acres will be as large as USDA has estimated at 88.1 million acres but harvested area for corn will be 600,000 acres, or 0.7 percent, smaller than USDA’s estimate of 88.8 million acres. Pro Farmer forecasts record yields – 169.3 bushels an acre for corn and 45.3 bushels an acre for soybeans. USDA also forecast yield records – 167.4 bushels for corn and 45.4 for soybeans.