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2016 Crop Production Summary Is In

Kelly Marshall

It’s been touted for months, but the USDA’s final Crop Production 2016 Summary finally confirms it, last year was a record-high yield for corn and soybeans.

In 2016 corn growers produced 15.1 billion bushels- 11 percent higher than 2015. Average yield is estimated to be 174.6 bushels per acre, up 6.2 bushels over the last crop. The National Agricultural Statistics Service says 86.7 million acres were harvested, a bump of 7 percent from 2015.

Similarly, soybean production broke records with a total of 4.31 billion total bushels. That’s 10 percent more than the previous year, and the average soybean yield was up 4.1 bushels over 2015, giving the nation an estimated record high of 52.1 bushels per acres. Area harvested went up 1 percent from last season, coming in at 82.7 million acres.

For 2016, all cotton production is up 32 percent from 2015, at 17.0 million 480-pound bales. The U.S. yield is estimated at 855 pounds per acre, up 89 pounds from last year’s yield. Harvested area, at 9.52 million acres, is up 18 percent from last year.

Sorghum grain production in 2016 is estimated at 480 million bushels, down 20 percent from 2015. Area planted for sorghum, at 6.69 million acres, is down 21 percent from last year. Harvested area, at 6.16 million acres, is down 22 percent from 2015. Grain yield is estimated at a record 77.9 bushels per acre, up 1.9 bushels from last year. Record high yields are estimated in Georgia, Kansas, and Nebraska.

Also released today were the Winter Wheat and Canola Seedings and Grain Stocks reports. The Winter Wheat Seedings report is the first indicator of this year’s winter wheat acreage. Planted area for harvest in 2017 is estimated at 32.4 million acres, down 10 percent from 2016 and 18 percent below 2015. This represents the second lowest U.S. acreage on record.

The online report also offers a look at grains, hay, oilseeds, cotton, tobacco, sugar, dry beans, peas, lentils, potatoes and other miscellaneous crops.

Corn, Soybean, USDA