Crop Production Report: Corn Yields Down, Soybeans Up Over 2017

After two months of silence in reporting, today the USDA is releasing a number of reports. This includes the 2018 production report, detailing final yield results for a variety of crops.

Today’s report includes information that would normally be published in the January Crop Production Report that was not released because of the government shutdown. It’s a bigger report than normal.

Compared to this report last year, corn planted acres and yield are down, soybean planted acres are down while production is up, cotton yields and harvested acres are down, and wheat harvested acres are down while yield is up.

Here’s what the agency found:

Corn
Area planted: 89.129 million acres
2017: 90.167 million acres
Area harvested: 81.74 million acres
2017: 82.703 million acres
Average yield: 176.4 bu. per acre
2017: 176.6 bu. per acre
Production: 14.42 billion bu.
2017: 14.604 billion bu.
Soybeans
Area planted: 89.196 million acres
2017: 90.142 million acres
Area harvested: 88.11 million acres
2017: 89.522 million acres
Average Yield: 51.6 bu. per acre
2017: 49.1 bu. per acre
Production: 4.544 billion bu.
2017: 4.392 billion bu.
Cotton
Area planted: 14.099 million acres
2017: 12.611 million acres
Area harvested: 10.53 million acres
2017: 11.348 million acres
Yield: 838 lb. bales
2017: 899 lb. bales
Production: 18.39 million lbs.
2017: 21.263 million lbs.
Wheat, all
Area planted: 47.8 million acres
2017: 46.01 million acres
Area harvested: 39.605 million acres
2017: 37.586 million acres
Yield: 47.6 bu. per acre
2017: 46.3 bu. per acre
Production: 1.884 billion bu.
2017: 1.741 billion bu.