US Mid West corn harvest this week.

RECORD yields are on the cards for the United States summer crops of corn and soybeans. Corn recently began an earlier-than-usual harvest in the US mid-west.

The US corn production forecast was revised by USDA in its September US crop report up 2 per cent from August to 14.8 billion bushels (about 38 million tonnes).

The US yield forecast in the September report was also up 2pc from August and, if realised, would be a US record. Area harvested was also forecast 2pc above last year.

Soybean low price, record crop

US soybean yield forecast was lifted 2pc and, if achieved, would also be a record.

Soybean production was forecast at a record 4.69 billion bushels (about 13Mt), up 2pc from August and up 7pc from last year.

Based on September 1 conditions, yields were expected to average a record high 52.8 bushels per acre (3.6t/ha), up 2pc from last month and up 8pc from last year.

Area for harvest in the US was forecast at 88.9 million acres (36mHa), unchanged from August but down 1 pc from 2017.

The USDA September price projection trimmed US30c/bu from average farm gate soybean price compared with the August estimate.

US cotton plant up, harvest down

While planted cotton area was slightly up from previous year, harvested area and yield were forecast down a little, resulting in a crop of 19.68 million bales, 6pc lower than last year

Pima cotton prospects were seen brighter than upland cotton; USDA forecast 2018 US pima production at 771,000 bales, 10pc higher than 2017, representing about 4pc of the US total cotton crop.

Source:USDA

Editor’s note: US soybean futures price this week was at a 10-year low.