USDA predicts big crops, but storms could affect prediction

The Agriculture Department predicted big corn and soybean crops with high yields in its August crop report this week, but a big midwestern storm that affected fields and storage facilities could reduce the actual harvest and stocks.

USDA said U.S. farmers were looking at their largest corn crop ever and a near-record soybean harvest, with huge stockpiles of both crops persisting into fall 2021, Successful Farming noted.

But at the same time, farmers in Iowa and other states were assessing the damage from Monday’s derecho, a line of intense, widespread, and fast-moving windstorms that moved through the Midwest.

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Agriculture Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation Bill Northey announced the availability of assistance to the Midwestern farmers.

“Our agricultural producers provide Americans and consumers around the world with such abundance, it’s critical that we stand with them when confronting disasters like the derecho that has devastated so many in America’s heartland,” Northey said in a news release listing the available programs.

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While in Iowa to launch the Trump-Pence farmer and ranch campaign effort, Vice President Mike Pence and Gov. Kim Reynolds, Sen. Joni Ernst, and Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig, all Republicans, met with farmers to hear about the damage to their farms and property from Monday’s storm.