Missouri Harvest Projections Diminish Amid Persistent Drought

USDA has downgraded its projection of Missouri’s harvest of most fall crops.  Thursday’s Crop Production report indicated that the state’s farmers will bring in just under 517.5 million bushels of corn this fall.  While that’s up three percent from last year’s revised harvest total, this month’s forecast is down nearly 15 million bushels from September, as yield was trimmed four bushels per acre to 141.  The soybean forecast is unchanged from September at 249.74 million bushels, down nine percent from a year ago.

The Bootheel also saw downgraded forecasts, with cotton witnessing a 12-percent slash to its projected yield for the year.  Now at just 989 pounds per acre, Missouri farmers are set to just bring in 680,000 bales of the crop, a 23-percent drop year-over-year.  Missouri’s rice production was trimmed 100 pounds per acre from September, resulting in a projected harvest of 1.6 billion pounds.  That’s still 36 percent ahead of last year’s total.

Despite drought impacting pastures and rowcrops, Missouri’s alfalfa production appears to have more than doubled this year.  731,000 tons of the haycrop was harvested this year, up nearly 400,000 tons from a year ago.  Harvested acreage increased 95,000 acres to 225,000, while yield jumped to 3.25 tons per acre.  The emphasis on alfalfa resulted in the state’s other hay production decreasing 29 percent to 3.9 million tons.  Yield dropped to 1.3 tons per acre, with hay cut from three million acres, a 50,000 acre reduction from a year ago.