Record yields predicted for some US states

Date:11-27-2014

According to the USDA November Crop Production report released recently, Alabama corn farmers look to pull in an average of 156 bushels per acre, a new record, for a total of 46 million bushels produced in 2014. Cotton producers in the state look to produce 610,000 bales; peanut farmers will make 499 million pounds and soybean production will be 20.6 million pounds.

Florida cotton farmers look to set record-high production and average yield for this year with 979 pounds per acre yield average and production of 210,000 bales. Peanut production is forecasted at 640 million pounds, up 24 percent from last year.

Georgia soybean farmers are on track to average 41 bushels per acre this year, a new record for the state. Soybean production is forecasted at 11.9 million bushels, up 28 percent from 2013. Corn harvested for grain production is forecasted at 55.3 million bushels, down 32 percent from 2013. Cotton production forecasted at 2.60 million bales is up 12 percent from last year. Peanut production is forecasted at 2.40 billion pounds, up 27 percent from 2013.

South Carolina soybean farmers are on pace to tie their record-high yield of 34 bushels per acre with total production forecasted to be 15 million bushels, up 69 percent from last year. Corn harvested for grain is forecasted at 33 million bushels, down 24 percent from 2013. Cotton production -- forecasted at 540,000 bales -- is up 50 percent from 2013. Peanut production is forecasted at 403 million pounds, up 48 percent from 2013.

Virginia corn farmers figure they’ll average 142 bushels per acre, down 12 bushels per acre from 2013, and expect to harvest 350,000 acres, down 10,000 acres from last year. Production is forecast to be 49.7 million bushels, down 10 percent from last year. Virginia’s soybean producers expect to average 41 bushels per acre, up 2.5 bushels per acre from last year. Soybean production is expected to total 26.2 million bushels from 640,000 acres.

Tennessee corn farmers will harvest 135 million bushels, up 6 percent from the previous crop, with a 2014 yield average of 165 bushels per acre, according to the forecast. Acres for grain were estimated at 820,000 acres. Soybean production for Tennessee is forecast at 75.8 million bushels, up 5 percent from 2013. Yield was estimated at 48 bushels per acre. Acreage for harvest as beans was estimated at 1.58 million acres, up 30,000 acres from the previous year.

U.S. corn production is forecast at 14.4 billion bushels, down slightly from the October forecast, but up 3 percent from 2013. Based on conditions as of November 1, yields are expected to average 173.4 bushels per acre, down 0.8 bushels from last month but up 14.6 bushels from 2013. Area harvested for grain is forecast at 83.1 million acres, unchanged from the October forecast but down 5 percent from 2013.

U.S. soybean production is forecast at 3.96 billion bushels, up 18 percent from last year. Based on November 1 conditions, yields are expected to average a record high 47.5 bushels per acre, up 3.5 bushels from last year. Area for harvest is forecast at a record 83.4 million acres, unchanged from the October forecast and up 9 percent from 2013.