Final 2020 Production Numbers Provide Surprise

USDA provided quite the shock to corn traders and producers Tuesday with the release of their annual Crop Production report. According to the National Ag Statistics Service, corn production nationwide totaled 14.2 billion bushels, up 560 million bushels from a year ago. However, that’s over a billion bushels below USDA’s initial estimate from August, which had been calling for a record. Instead, yield tumbled almost four bushels from the November estimates to 172 bushels per acre, which is still 4.5 bushels better than last year. Harvested acres were up slightly at 82.5 million acres. However, it was still a 21% surge for Missouri corn producers, with 560.9 million bushels piled into the state’s grain bins. Yield jumped 16 bushels per acre to 171, and harvested area improved to 3.28 million acres. That’s better than last year’s planted acreage, as farmers were able to rebound from the floods and heavy rains of 2019. Another 1.7 million tons were baled for silage from 100,000 acres.

Soybean production totals were also revised lower from November’s estimates, but still finished double-digits better than a year ago. Total production came in at 4.14 billion bushels, up 16% from the previous year. That’s also a far cry from USDA’s August estimate of 4.42 billion. Instead of a record 53.3 bushels per acre, yield ended up just 2.8 bushels higher than a year ago at 50.2. 10% more acres were harvested over the fall, at 82.3 million acres. Production in Missouri jumped over 60-million bushels this year to 290.5 million bushels, as a result of yield increasing to 50 bushels per acre. Acreage rebounded from last year’s waterlogged planting season, with 5.81 million acres harvested.

Hay production in the state fell as a result of a 13% drop in harvested acreage. 6.44 million tons were harvested from 3.07 million acres. Yield also decreased to 2.1 tons per acre. Just 594,000 tons of that was alfalfa, a 15% drop from last year. Alfalfa harvest was just from 220-thousand acres, while yield was steady at 2.7 tons per acre. Altogether, 13.14 million acres of cropland across Missouri were harvested in 2020.