US Corn yield projected lower, plagued by intense heat and little rainfall

USA — As the US corn and soybean harvests approach, scouts on this year’s tour forecast the 2022 corn crop at 13.759 billion bushels with an average yield of 168.1 bushels per acre. If realized, this would be the smallest corn harvest in three years.

A summer plagued by intense heat and little rainfall proved too stressful for corn crops in some states. In the USDA’s weekly Crop Progress report, the corn crop in the 18 major growing states was rated 54% good to excellent as of Aug. 28, down 1% from the previous week and down considerably from 60% a year earlier.

It was a different story for soybeans. Crop tour scouts projected the 2022 US soybean harvest at 4.535 billion bus with an average yield of 51.7 bus per acre, which aligns with the USDA’s record-high forecast of 4.53 billion bushels and projected yield of 51.9 bus per acre in its Aug. 12 Crop Production report.

Despite dry conditions, scouts on the tour said overall soil moisture in most states was adequate enough to produce a quality soybean crop. In the USDA’s weekly Crop Progress report, the soybean crop in the 18 major growing states was rated 57% good to excellent on Aug. 28, unchanged from the previous week and slightly above the 56% rating during the same week in 2021.

In the USDA’s weekly Crop Progress report, the corn crop in the 18 major growing states was rated 54% good to excellent as of Aug. 28, down 1% from the previous week and down considerably from 60% a year earlier.

About 27% of US corn production areas and 20% of US soybean areas are in drought, according to the USDA’s analysis of the Aug. 23 US Drought Monitor. Most of Texas and Oklahoma in the southern Plains, and a significant portion of the central Plains of Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska were in drought, as was a little less than half of Iowa.

Scattered precipitation and high humidity have further delayed progress in harvesting a 2022 US spring wheat crop that has been behind normal pace from the beginning.

Spring wheat conditions were mostly good with US spring wheat rated 68% good to excellent, up from 64% a week earlier and towering above 11% one year earlier as northern Plains growers were collecting the drought-diminished 2021 crop.

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