Corn, soybean and cotton production expectations have dropped from last month, according to a Crop Production report issued last week by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). The forecasts, based on yield and farm operator surveys conducted between Sept. 23 and Oct. 5 show:
- CORN PRODUCTION is forecast at 15.1 billion bushels, down less than 1% from the previous forecast but up 10% from last year.
- SOYBEAN PRODUCTION, forecast at 4.10 billion bushels, is expected to be down 4% compared to 2022.
- COTTON PRODUCTION, forecast at 12.8 million 480-pound bales, is expected to be down 2% from the previous forecast and down 11% from 2022.
Based on conditions as of Oct. 1, yields are expected as follows:
- CORN YIELD should average 173.0 bushels per harvested acre. This is a drop of 0.8 bushel from the previous forecast and down 0.4 bushel from 2022. The area expected to be harvested for grain is forecast at 87.1 million acres, the same as the previous forecast.
- SOYBEAN YIELD should average 49.6 bushels per acre. This is a drop of 0.5 bushels per acre from the previous forecast but unchanged from 2022. The area expected to be harvested for soybean is forecast at 82.8 million acres, the same as the previous forecast, but down 4% from 2022.
- COTTON YIELD should average 767 pounds per harvested acre, down 19 pounds from the previous forecast and down 183 pounds from 2022. Cotton acres harvested is forecast at 8.02 million acres, the same as last forecast but up by one tenth from last year. Within this category, upland cotton yield is forecast at 12.5 million 480-pound bales. This is down 2% from the previous forecast and 11% from last year. Pima cotton should yield 356,000 bales, the same as the previous forecast but a drop of nearly one quarter from last year.
