The U.S. Department of Agriculture today did something it has never done before – adjusted its official October acreage and production estimates for six field crops.

“There has never been a complete reissue of a crop production report, with a lock up and with the secretary’s briefing,” said Joe Prusacki with USDA’s National Ag Statistics Service.

USDA revised the numbers after discovering discrepancies in a Farm Service Agency (FSA) database of producer-reported crop acreage used by the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). NASS published the changes this morning in a corrected version of the Oct. 10 Crop Production. The World Agricultural Outlook Board also issued an abbreviated World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report reflecting the acreage updates.

Compared to the Oct. 10 release, the corrected Crop Production report reflects 1.2 percent fewer planted acres for corn, 1.4 percent fewer planted acres for soybeans, 1.9 percent fewer acres planted acres for canola, 0.8 percent fewer planted acres for sunflowers, and 0.7 percent fewer planted acres for dry edible beans. The report also reflects a 2.5 percent increase in planted acres for sorghum. Even with the reduced acreage estimates, the 2008 corn crop is still on track to be the second largest on record, while the soybean crop will be the fourth largest.