Corn harvest down 3 percent from ’12

Published 1:58 pm Saturday, November 9, 2013

ST. PAUL — The cold, wet spring and a summer drought failed to put a big dent in Minnesota’s corn harvest, according to updated forecasts Friday from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The USDA now projects Minnesota’s corn production for this year at 1.33 billion bushels. That’s down just 3 percent from last year’s record harvest of 1.37 billion bushels. The state’s projected corn yield is 164 bushels per acre, down one bushel from 2012.

Minnesota’s soybean harvest is projected at 259 million bushels, down 15 percent from last year, partly because farmers planted fewer soybeans this year. Minnesota’s soybean yield is forecast at 39 bushels per acre, which is 4.5 bushels below last year’s yield.

Email newsletter signup

The new corn and soybean forecasts were generally down slightly from the USDA’s September forecasts. The October forecasts were canceled due to the federal government shutdown.

The USDA also projected Minnesota sugarbeet production at 11.5 million tons, down 6 percent from 2012. Fall potato production for Minnesota is forecast at 17.6 million hundredweight, down 7 percent from 2012.

State statistician Dan Lofthus said the USDA will begin surveying farmers in December to generate its final crop production estimates, which will be released in January.