USDA: Little Change In Crop Production From 2016 to 2017

The final look at 2017 US Crop production numbers show little change from 2016 when it comes to planting, but harvest numbers were a bit short, according to USDA Chief Economist Rob Johansson

"We planted roughly what we did last year, about 319.1 million acres and harvested about 303 million. That's down a little bit more than last year comparatively.  On th harvested we did see all that drought up in the Dakotas and Montana. We saw some small grain acres leave there in terms of harvest.

However, soybeans and corn saw some record yields, helping to make up for drops in other production areas.

Johansson added that cotton also did very well.

"Overall, highest yield ever, at 899 pounds per acre, so despite the weather effects from the various hurricanes that wen through the Southeast we still have overall on a national basis a record high yield for cotton."

The USDA released the final 2016 crop production numbers late last week.