Source: NCDA&CS, 8/16/16

Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler sits down each week with Southern Farm Network’s Rhonda Garrison to discuss “Today’s Topic.”

We’ve been hearing about this being a good year for corn in North Carolina, and the latest USDA crop report backs that up. The August crop report forecasts a corn yield of 130 bushels per acre and total production of over 122 million bushels. The production total is 48 percent above last year’s production of 82.5 million bushels.

The cotton crop also is looking good, with a yield forecast at 943 pounds per acre. That’s 230 pounds per acre better than last year, and would push total production to 560,000 bales, a 6 percent increase.

Here are some other figures from the report:
• Soybean production is forecast at 57.6 million bushels, up slightly from last year. The yield is forecast to be 36 bushels per acre, which is about 13 percent above last year’s yield.
• Peanut yield is predicted to be 3,800 pounds per acre, with total production of 300 million pounds. That would be a slight increase in production over last year, even though fewer acres of peanuts were planted this year.
• The flue-cured tobacco harvest is projected to yield 2,200 pounds per acre, with total production forecast at 363 million pounds. Because fewer acres were planted this year, production is projected to be 4 percent lower than last year.
• Apple production in North Carolina is forecast at 110 million pounds, an increase of 5 million pounds from 2015.
Peach production took a hit this year, which was expected because of the late freeze in the spring. Production is 3,700 tons, which is 31 percent less than last year.