The growing season has been wide and varied for America’s corn and soybean crops. Harvest seems to be on track for good, but not great yields. That’s according to a Farm Futures August crop production survey.
However, even above average yields for the sixth-straight year could leave prices struggling, especially in a soybean market that’s getting hammered by tariffs on exports. While growers aren’t expecting record yields, the survey shows that this year’s soybean crop could still possibly be a record high. The survey puts average soybean yields at 49.8 bushels per acre. That would put total harvest at 4.42 billion bushels, 30 million above the 2017 record.
The survey puts the corn yield at 175.4 bushels per acre, 1.2 bushels per acre shy of the record set last year. Acreage is also down from last year, which could drop overall production to 14.36 billion bushels, a 240 million bushel drop from 2017.
USDA will release its first crop production survey on August 10, a key milestone for the grain market every summer.
Source: National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service.