Fundamentally Speaking

The final results are in and the U.S. produced a record corn crop for 2014 in both bushel and yield terms.

Total output at 14.216 billion bushels, a new all-time high was achieved via a record yield of 171.0 bushels per acre (bpa) though that was down from the 173.4 bpa November projection and the highest USDA estimate this year in the October report of 174.2 bpa.

Difficult to pinpoint why the national yield declined by 3.2 bpa from what had been indicated in October though a dry July in certain states and some inclement weather in the Upper Midwest prior to the harvest being completed seem like two plausible reasons.

Nonetheless, this year's yield breaks the old mark of 164.4 bpa set in 2009 and nine of the top 18 producing states also attained all-time high yields.

This graphic shows the actual 2014 yield in bushels per acre for the U.S. and the top producing states, that yield as a percent of the 20 year trend and this year's estimated 20 year trend yield.

Note that only two states, MN at 87% and ND at 94% had 2014 final corn yields below their calculated 20 year trend.

Iowa at 100% of trend and Wisconsin at 102% were two of the lower ranked states, consistent with some problems in the Upper Midwest we had mentioned earlier.

The state of Missouri certainly showed them as their 186 bpa yield was not only a new record, a whopping 24 bpa above their old high but was tops at 44% above trend.

IL, IN, KS and TN were also stellar performers.

Iowa is often the leader in state corn yields but was surpassed by IL, IN, MO and NE though they have the highest projected 2015 trend yield at 178 bpa.

(KA)

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