As drought continues, forecast yield for corn is lowered 23 bushels per acre

Based on crop conditions as of August 1st, the National Agricultural Statistical Service forecast U.S. 2012/13 corn yields 22.6 bushels per acre lower at 123.4 bushels, compared with last month's forecast of 146 bushels. As forecast, the 2012/13 corn yield would be the lowest since 1995/96. The yield reduction, combined with a decrease of 1.5 million in expected harvested acres, results in a crop of 10,779 million bushels, which is 2,191 million bushels lower than July's projection and 1,580 million below last season. This forecast would result in the lowest production since 2006/07. Unusually high temperatures and well below average precipitation across much of the Corn Belt in July sharply reduced yield prospects, despite the early planted crop. As of August 5th, only 23 percent of the corn crop was rated in good-to-excellent condition in the 18 major corn-producing States, down 37 percentage points from a year ago. Fifty percent of the crop was in the very poor-to-poor range, compared with 48 percent the previous week and 16 percent at this point last season. This chart comes from Feed Outlook, FDS-12h, August 2012.

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