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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Corn crop copes with heat


An ear of dried corn is hangs on a stalk in a field in Princeton, Texas. Despite the loss, areas unaffected by drought enjoyed bumpber crops, leaving the nationwide crop only slightly lower than last year's.
 (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Associated Press The Spokesman-Review

WASHINGTON — Near-record heat and worsening drought have failed to dampen production of the nation’s corn crop, the Agriculture Department reported Friday.

The corn forecast improved in the monthly crop report, which said farmers will produce 10.98 billion bushels, up 236 million from last month’s projections. Last year’s production was 1 percent higher at 11.11 billion bushels.

The report also said:

•The wheat production forecast of 1.8 billion bushels is down 14 percent from last year’s 2.1 billion bushels. The price forecast improved 20 cents to $3.90 to $4.50 a bushel.

•The forecast for rice production is 197.2 million hundredweight, down 26 million hundredweight from last year. Prices improved 10 cents to $9.25 to $9.75 per hundredweight.

•The cotton crop should be 20.4 million bales, down 14 percent from last year’s record 23.9 million bales.

The report defied the predictions of many analysts who expected drought to result in lower national numbers. The reason is that yields appear to be better, said Keith Collins, the department’s chief economist.

“Parts of the country where weather has been very good are seeing big increases in yields over last year — corn in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio as an example,” Collins said.

“Whereas in the western Corn Belt states — Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota — we’re seeing drops year over year,” Collins said in a release.

Corn yields should average 152.2 bushels an acre, up 4.3 bushels from last year. If realized, this year’s yields would be the third-best on record, analysts said.

Soybeans are a different story. Yields are expected to drop from last year’s record highs, and high temperatures and drought have worsened the outlook in the western Corn Belt as well as the Great Plains and Gulf Coast.

Yields are forecast at 39.6 bushels an acre on average, down 3.7 bushels from 2005.

Soybean production is forecast at 2.93 billion bushels, down 5 percent from last year’s 3.1 billion bushel crop.

Not since the Dust Bowl has July been so hot. Average temperatures were 77.2 degrees nationwide last month, compared with 77.5 degrees in July 1936. Dryness also approached records in the lower 48 states, which experienced the driest conditions from May through June since 1988.

Prices dropped 10 cents for corn, which is projected to get $2.15 to $2.55 a bushel. For soybeans, prices were unchanged at $5 to $6 a bushel.

Prices are stronger for the nation as a whole and should compensate for lower yields and keep production values close to last year’s levels, Collins said.

The outlook for the amount of corn sold for exports and the amount used for ethanol was unchanged at 2.15 billion bushels each. Friday’s crop report offered the first survey-based forecasts of the year for corn, soybeans and rice, based on interviews of 27,000 farmers and visits to fields.