The government has once again cut its forecast for the corn harvest. In a monthly report released this morning, the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects the Iowa corn harvest at 167 bushels per acre – down from 169 bushels projected last month and the 179 bushels per acre prediction in both August and September.
The 2010 corn crop in Iowa is now forecast at 2.187 billion bushels. Total production across the U.S. is expected to hit 12.5 billion bushels, down from the 13.1 billion bushels of corn farmers produced in 2009. The corn crop in Iowa and in other parts of the Midwest was damaged by record amounts of rain in July.
The U.S.D.A. reports Iowa is expected to produce 512 million bushels of soybeans this year, up from 486 million last year.