August 15, 2008 - Despite June's severe flooding in the Midwest, U.S. farmers are on pace to produce the second largest corn crop and fourth largest soybean crop in history, according to the Crop Production report released this week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).

Corn production is forecast at 12.3 billion bushels, down 6 percent from last year's record, but up 17 percent from 2006. Based on conditions as of August 1, corn yields are expected to average 155 bushels per acre, up 3.9 bushels from last year. If realized, this would be the second highest corn yield on record, behind 2004. Growers are expected to harvest 79.3 million acres of corn for grain, down 8 percent from last year.

Soybean production is forecast at 2.97 billion bushels, up 15 percent from last year, but down 7 percent from the 2006 record. Yields are expected to average 40.5 bushels per acre, down 0.7 bushels from 2007, while harvested area is expected to be 17-percent higher than in 2007.

The Crop Production report is published monthly and is available online at http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/MannUsda/viewDocumentInfo.do?documentID=1046.

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