LITTLE ROCK – The 2012 yield projections from the National Agricultural Statistics Service show Arkansas soybeans expected to tie a record set in 2004; rice and corn to hit their highest levels since 2007 and sorghum to yield its highest level since 2008.
In the report released on Friday, NASS said:
• Soybeans were projected to tie the 2004 record of 39 bushels per acre, up one bushel from last year and two bushels from the 37 bushel-per-acre five-year average.
• Rice yields are projected to be 6,980 pounds per acre, the highest since 2007. Yield was 6,770 last year and 6,743 is the five-year average.
• Corn yield is projected at 160 bushels per acre, up from 142 bushels per acre last year and the 151 bushel/acre five-year average. (See ‘Early corn harvest has Ark producers grinning ear to ear’: http://uaex.edu/news/august2012/0810ArkCornHarvest.html)
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
• Sorghum was projected to yield 80 bushels an acre, its highest level since 2008, up from last year’s 72, and just below the 81 bushel per acre five-year average.
• Cotton was projected to yield 1,011 pounds per acre, well up from last year’s 929 pounds average yield and the 995 pound five-year average.
• Wheat was off from last year’s pace, at 55 bushels an acre, down from 58 bushels in 2011. It was still up from the five-year average of 52 bushels.
“Of the states with significant corn acres, Arkansas’ yield was projected to be the fifth highest in the country,” said Scott Stiles, extension economist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. “Higher than Illinois,Indiana, Nebraska and Iowa, which are all traditionally strong corn states. It’s a reflection of the impact that drought has had on growers in the Midwest.”
With production falling 1.5 billion bushels from last year and U.S. corn inventories at the lowest level since 1996, prices have boomed. September corn futures are 21 percent above 2011, trading at $8.18.
Soybeans are up too – 25 percent for November futures – from $13.01 last year to $16.31 this year.
Sorghum growers saw a 20 percent increase based on December futures, to $8.23 from $6.88 last year.
However, “cotton and rice have not benefited price-wise from the drought,” Stiles said. “Rice is about 92 cents per hundredweight lower than at this time last year.
“Cotton is substantially lower — about 24 cents — compared to a year ago,” he said. “Twenty-four cents equates to about $240 per acre given the roughly 1,000-pound yield that NASS is currently forecasting. That money will be missed; it’s been an expensive year.”
Stiles said he expects the current planting trends to continue into 2013: Less cotton and more corn.
The NASS figures reflect average yields from across the state.
For more information about crop production, contact your county extension office or visit www.uaex.edu. For drought information, visit arkdroughtresourcecenter.wordpress.com.
The Cooperative Extension Service is part of the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture and offers its programs to all eligible persons without discrimination.