File photo
File photo
A U.S. Department of Agriculture preliminary report predicts a record year for corn production that also likely will lower prices in the long run.
The USDA projects farmers will plant 94 million acres in 2020, a 4 million acre increase from 2019. The per-acre crop is projected to increase to 178.5 bushels, a slight increase from previous years.
“It will take a good season to do it, but that is an amazing number that would push total production beyond 15 billion bushels, which is a huge number,” Mark Welch, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension grain economist, told the Waco Tribune-Herald.
If the USDA projections hold, grain prices will drop but Texas farmers will have an advantage. Texas farmers generally can get their crops to the market earlier because of the growing season.
“There will still be a lot of things unknown about the Corn Belt crop, and that’s a market advantage for some Texas growers,” he said. “What happens there over the next few months weather-wise and with updated prospective planting reports will weigh on where prices go.”
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