WASHINGTON – US 2013 corn production was forecast at 13,988,720,000 bushels, up 145,400,000 bushels, or 1 percent, from 13,843,320,000 bushels forecast in September and up 30 percent from 10,780,296,000 bushels in 2012, the US Department of Agriculture said in its Nov. 8 Crop Production report. Soybean production was forecast at 3,257,746,000 bushels, up 108,580,000 bushels, or 3 percent, from 3,149,166,000 bushels forecast in September and up 7 percent from 3,033,581,000 bushels last year.

The USDA corn number was below the average pre-report trade estimate of 14,022 million bushels, while the soybean number was above the pre-report average of 3,225 million bushels. If realized, corn production would be record high and soybean production would be the third largest on record, the USDA said.


Corn futures prices traded slightly higher after the report was released at 11:00 a.m. Central Time, and soybean futures were higher.

The USDA did not issue its Crop Production report in October due to the partial federal government shutdown.
Based on Nov. 1 conditions, average corn yield was forecast at 160.4 bushels an acre, up 5.1 bushels from 155.3 bushels an acre forecast in September, up 37 bushels from 123.4 bushels an acre in 2012 and the highest average yield since 2009, the USDA said. Harvested area was forecast at 87,232,000 acres, down 2 percent from September and down slightly from 87,375,000 acres in 2012.

The average soybean yield was forecast at 43 bushels an acre, up 1.8 bushels from 41.2 bushels an acre forecast in September and up 3.2 bushels from 39.8 bushels an acre in 2012. Harvested area was forecast at 75,688,000 acres, down 1 percent from both September and from 76,164,000 acres in 2012.

Sorghum outturn in 2013 was forecast at 415,570,000 bushels, up 5 percent from 396,105,000 bushels forecast in September and up 68 percent from 246,932,000 bushels in 2012.