USDA numbers lighter than expected

BLOOMINGTON – Yield numbers actually came in a bit lighter than the trade thought in Thursday’s August USDA report.

Corn was 174.6 bushels per acre with 50 bushels on soybeans. Both of these numbers are about a half bushel lower than the trade thought.

“That naturally dropped the production numbers down a little,” Dale Durhholz of Grain Cycles told The Central Illinois Farm Network.

Production for corn was down about 250 million bushels with bean production about 35 million under. This all compounds through the supply and demand numbers which were released, too. Ending stocks estimates for corn were 1.24 billion bushels and soybeans at 155 million bushels. These may be a little light, especially the corn number.

“The numbers coming in a little bit under what the trade thought really didn’t surprise me a whole lot,” said Durchholz.

The report information caught some off guard as it counters what USDA had been doing in August for the past few years.

Illinois Crop Production information:

Corn: Planted area is estimated at 11.2 million acres, down 1 percent from last year. Harvested area, forecast at 11.0 million acres, is down 1 percent from 2020. Based on August 1 conditions, the Illinois corn yield is forecast at a record 214 bushels per acre, up 22 bushels from 2020. Production is forecast at a record 2.35 billion bushels, up 10 percent from last year’s production.

Soybeans: Planted area is estimated at 10.70 million acres, up 4 percent from last year. Harvested area, forecast at 10.65 million acres, is up 4 percent from 2020. Based on August 1 conditions, the Illinois soybean yield is forecast at a record 64 bushels per acre, up 5 bushels from 2020. Production is forecast at a record 682 million bushels, up 13 percent from 2020.

Winter Wheat: Harvested area in 2021 is forecast at 650,000 acres, up 25 percent from the previous year. The winter wheat yield is forecast at 80 bushels per acre, up 12 bushels from 2020. Production is forecast at 52 million bushels, up 47 percent from last year.