WASHINGTON — After months of rising food prices, there may be some relief coming with farmers on track to produce the second-largest corn crop and fourth-largest soybean crop in history.
In its first estimates this year based on field visits and farmer surveys, the Department of Agriculture sharply raised its estimate Tuesday of corn production and said “nearly ideal” weather has helped Midwestern farmers recover from June’s devastating floods.
That recovery eventually may lead to lower prices for corn and soybeans, which in turn could provide some relief to meat producers that use the grains for animal feed.
It won’t happen soon, though. Even with the USDA’s current projections and an easing in grain prices recently, prices of many crops are double what they were a year ago and many chicken and meat producers have cut production.
Ephraim Leibthe, a USDA economist, told AP Radio that food inflation could drop from its current 5 percent rate “if commodity prices stabilize at this new lower level.”
Corn prices have already fallen about 35 percent from record highs of almost $8 a bushel, reached after the floods devastated major corn-growing states such as Iowa and Illinois.
The USDA forecast that farmers will harvest 12.3 billion bushels of corn, up more than 570 million bushels from last month’s estimate of 11.7 billion. That’s down 6 percent from last year’s record crop of 13.1 billion bushels but 17 percent above the 2006 harvest.
Average corn prices this year are expected to drop to $4.90 to $5.90 per bushel, down 60 cents from last month’s forecast of $5.50 to $6.50.
Corn for December delivery rose 8 cents to $5.25 in afternoon trading on the Chicago Board of Trade, after falling earlier in response to the report.
Cooler- and wetter-than-average weather since the floods will boost corn yields to 155 bushels per acre, up from last month’s estimate of 148.4, the department said.
That’s the biggest increase in yield in the department’s August report in 10 years, according to Joe Victor, vice president for marketing at Allendale Inc., a commodities broker based in McHenry, Ill.
“I’ve been farming for 33 years, and this was probably one of the hardest springs I’ve had putting a crop in,” said Larry Gleason, 56-year-old grower of soybeans and beans on 3,500 central Illinois acres near Elkhart. “I just planted it wet and hoped Mother Nature would keep sending the rain to get it up.”
