Corn, soybean yields below 2000 crop

REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio – Ohio farmers harvested 4.58 million acres of soybeans in 2001. Soybean production is estimated at 187.8 million bushels, down 5 percent from the Nov. 1 estimate of 197 million bushels.

Harvested acreage is down 110,000 acres from the Nov. 1 estimate and yields fell one bushel to a final estimate of 41 bushels per acre.

Corn harvest. Corn growers harvested 437.5 million bushels, 16.1 million bushels below the Nov. 1 estimate, and 10 percent below the 2000 production.

The 2001 corn production decrease was due to a 9-bushel per acre yield decrease from 2000 to 138 bushels per acre along with a 4 percent decrease in harvested acres to 3.17 million acres compared to 3.30 million acres in 2000.

All hay yield dropped to 2.81 tons of dry hay per acre from 3.23 tons per acre in 2000.

Alfalfa yields averaged 3.5 tons of dry hay per acre and other hay averaged 2.4 tons per acre.

Production of all hay dropped 5 percent from 2000 to 4.28 million tons.

Tobacco. Burley tobacco production fell 9 percent from 2000 to 12 million pounds. The decline in production is due to harvested acreage falling to 6,100 acres from 7,500 acres in 2000.

Yield at 1,960 pounds per acre is up 200 pounds from 1,760 pounds per acre in 2000.

Sugarbeet production fell 29 percent to 12,000 tons. Harvested acres fell to 600 acres from 800 acres in 2000. Yield at 20 tons per acre is down 5 percent from 2000.

Potato production. Ohio’s potato production was 984,000 cwt., a decrease of 13 percent from 2000. Harvested potato acreage dropped to 4,100 from 4,200 and the yield dropped to 240 cwt. per acre from 270 cwt. per acre in 2000.

National production. The U.S. corn for grain production is estimated at 9.51 billion bushels, down 4 percent from the revised 9.92 billion bushels in 2000. This is the fourth largest crop behind 1994’s record production of 10.1 billion bushels followed by 2000’s and 1998’s production.

Production is down less than 0.4 percent from the Nov. 1 forecast due to lower than expected grain harvested acres in the heart of the Corn Belt and throughout the West.

The U.S. grain yield of 138.2 bushels per acre, the second highest yield on record, is up 0.2 bushel from November and 1.3 bushels from 2000.

Soybean production in 2001 totaled 2.89 billion bushels, down 1 percent from the November 1 forecast, but 5 percent above 2000.

The 2001 production is a record high, followed by last year’s 2.76 billion bushels. The average yield per acre in 2001 is estimated at 39.6 bushels, 0.2 bushel above the Nov. 1 forecast and 1.5 bushels above the 2000 yield.

Harvested area totaled 73 million acres, up 1 percent from 2000 and is the largest harvested acreage on record.

All hay production for 2001 is estimated at 157 million tons, up 3 percent from the 2000 total. Acreage harvested, at 63.5 million acres, is up 6 percent from 2000.

The average yield, at 2.47 tons per acre, is down 0.07 ton from the previous year.