Wheat Growers See Record-High Yields
As of September 1, there were 1.74 billion bushels of old crop corn and 197 million bushels of old crop soybeans in storage, according to the Grain Stocks report released today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).
Producers reported that there were 627 million bushels of corn stored on farms, up 6 percent from this time in 2015. Off-farm facilities held 1.11 billion bushels of corn, down 2 percent from a year ago. The U.S. corn disappearance totaled 2.97 billion bushels during June-August, up from 2.72 billion bushels during the same period last year.
NASS reported that as of September 1, there were 41.6 million bushels of soybeans stored on the farm, down 16 percent from 2015, and 155 million bushels off-farm, up 10 percent from last September. The U.S. soybean disappearance during June-August totaled 675 million bushels, up 55 percent from the same period last year.
In addition to releasing the Grain Stocks report, NASS also released the Small Grains 2016 Summary, which included the final tallies for U.S. wheat, oats and other small grains. According to the report, wheat growers set new record-high yield of 52.6 bushels per acre in 2016.
Wheat growers harvested 43.9 million acres of wheat for grain this year, down 7 percent from 2015. The levels of production and changes from 2015 by type are:
- Winter wheat – 1.67 billion bushels, up 22 percent;
- Durum wheat – 104 million bushels, up 24 percent; and
- Other spring wheat – 534 million bushels, down 11 percent.
Barley production is estimated at 199 million bushels, down 9 percent from 2015. Average yield per acre is 77.9 bushels, up 8.8 bushels from the previous year. This is the highest barley yield on record since the estimates began in 1866.
This and all NASS reports are available online at www.nass.usda.gov.