Iowa Soybean Association Responds to USDA Crop Report

ANKENY, Iowa - According to today’s United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) crop report, soybean production is expected to be a record high 3.32 billion bushels, up 2 percent from the October forecast and up 12 percent from last year. Based on Nov. 1 conditions, yields are expected to average 43.3 bushels per acre, up 0.9 bushel from last month and up 3.6 bushels from 2008. If realized, this will be the highest U.S. yield on record.

For Iowa, production is estimated at 486 million bushels, compared to 449.6 million in 2008. Yield estimates are for an average of 51 bushels per acre, one bushel less than predicted in October, but 4.5 bushels higher than 2008. Meanwhile, the number of acres of soybeans harvested in Iowa is down 1.4 percent from last year.

According to Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) President Delbert Christensen, “We’re as uncertain about the size of this crop as we have been for several years. We hear wide variances in reports about yields, from very good to disappointing. With that kind of variance, it could end up higher or it could be lower.

“While we’ve made progress in the last 7 to 10 days, it may be awhile before we really know the size of this crop. In the meantime, we continue to work on building demand.”