USDA To Re-Survey Unharvested Corn and Soybean Acres
The annual Crop Production numbers released Friday by USDA may change as the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) seeks to clarify corn and soybean acres that still were not harvested at the time of the end of the growing season survey.
“When producers were surveyed for the Crop Production 2019 Summary there was significant unharvested acreage of corn in Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin; and soybean acreage not yet harvested in Michigan, North Dakota, and Wisconsin. The unharvested area and expected production were included in the totals released on Jan. 10,” NASS reported in a press release.
“If the newly collected data justifies any changes, NASS will update the Jan. 10 estimates in a future report. Stocks estimates are also subject to review since unharvested production is included in the estimate of on-farm stocks,” the press release noted.
Friday’s report pegged the 2019 corn crop at 13.7 billion bu., down 5% and even with the November report. Average corn yield is estimated at 168.0 bu. per acre, up a bushel from the November estimate.
Soybean production for 2019 is down 20 % from the previous year at 3.56 billion bu., up just slightly compared to the November number, with a projected yield of 47.4 bu. per acre.
