Record Corn Harvest Forecast Issued

Maryland's corn yield this year is expected to be the highest on record, the Maryland Agriculture Statistics Service (MASS) has announced. Based on conditions on or around August 1, the projected corn yield is 150 bushels per acre for a total production of 60 million bushels. That is up 57 bushels per acre from last year's drought- impacted yield of 93 bushels per acre. The current record corn yield is 139 bushels per acre in 1996. That year Maryland produced 64,635,000 bushels of corn for grain. The most corn ever produced in Maryland was 70,400,000 bushels in 1985.

"Farmers statewide are calling this their best corn crop in memory," said Maryland State Statistician Ray Garibay. "The frequent periods of soaking rains followed by warm sun and the absence of damaging wind or hail provided ideal conditions for the corn to grow and mature. If these conditions prevail through the harvest, the yields will be the best ever."

Farmers planted 480,000 acres of corn this year, slightly over the 1999 total of 470,000 acres. About 400 acres are expected to be harvested for grain with the remaining 80,000 acres be chopped for use as livestock feed (silage). The record number acres of corn ever harvested is 726,000 in 1891. Over the past decade, corn production has averaged 107 bushels per acre on 506,000 acres.

"The yields for corn as well as soybeans and other grains this year is a real boost for our farmers in the wake of the drought year of 1999," said Maryland Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Virts. "We can hardly wait for the harvest to begin so they can start to reap the benefits of all that hard work and careful planning."

According to MASS, soybeans also are progressing well with an expected yield of 36 bushels per acre, second highest on record, producing 17,640,000 bushels, fifth highest. In 1996 farmers reaped 37 bushels of soybeans per acre and in 1994 a total of 19,525,000 bushels were harvested, both all-time records.

Other grains also are projected to be at or near record levels. Winter wheat is forecast at 63 bushels per acre and 12,915,000 bushels total, both the third best ever. The record yield for winter wheat is 68 bushels per acre in 1997, while the largest harvest ever was 14,400,000 bushels in 1995.

Barley is expected to yield a record 84 bushels per acre, well above the 1995 record of 81. With 55,000 acres planted. Production is projected to be 4,200,000 bushels, the highest since 1994 but well behind the all-time record of 5,963,000 in 1987.

MASS also forecasts that the 2000 tobacco harvest in Maryland will set a yield record of 1,600 pounds per acre, besting the 1997 harvest rate by 100 pounds. At that level, Maryland would produce 9,600,000 pounds on 6,000 acres, the lowest acreage on record, but the most tobacco produced since 12 million pounds were harvested in1997. The record for tobacco production in Maryland was set in 1946 at 46,250,000, a record that will never be broken as the state moves to end the production of tobacco.

Posted: 8-23-2000