by Amanda Smith, Associate Editor
The nation's major dairy states led the pack for both corn silage and alfalfa forage harvest. Producers in Wisconsin put up 15.7 million tons of corn silage, while California stored 10.9 million tons of the forage. Minnesota, Pennsylvania and New York followed these two dairy leaders.
On a tons-per-acre basis, Arizona (29), Idaho (28) and Washington (28) were well above the national average of 20.1 tons per acre. All totaled, 6.3 million acres of corn silage were harvested in 2014 for an estimated total of 128 million tons of forage. The previous crop came in at 118.2 million tons.
Nationally, alfalfa forage yield per acre was 3.78 tons. Wisconsin again harvested the most forage at 8.5 million tons, followed by 5.9 million tons in California. Idaho, Minnesota and South Dakota each harvested 4 million-plus tons of alfalfa forage.
Grain prices have been on the descent in recent months, in part due to the size of this year's harvested corn and soybean crops. Cool summer weather during the latest growing season allowed plants to mature under mostly favorable conditions and enabled both grains to post record yields. Given the marketing forecast for 2015, the downward trend for corn prices is likely to continue.
Producers harvested 14.2 billion bushels of corn, a volume 3 percent greater than last year's record-setting crop. Average yields per acre also reached unforeseen levels at 171 bushels per acre, noted the USDA's recently released Crop Production 2014 Summary. This was 12.9 bushels above 2013's average yield of 158.1 bushels per acre. Compared to 2013, 5 percent fewer acres were planted to corn.
Demand for corn is expected to grow next year, especially from exports, yet prices are projected to hover around the cost of production for the grain. According to ABC News, economists at Kansas State University expect the 2015 corn price to average $4.15 a bushel, which is less than half the projected $9.50 per-bushel price for corn's closest competitor: soybeans.
With a gain of 18 percent over the previous crop year, 2014 soybean production totaled a record 3.97 billion bushels. Yield also improved 3.8 bushels, to reach 47.8 bushels per acre. Harvested area was up 9 percent from 2013 to 83.1 million acres and is the highest on record.
(c) Hoard's Dairyman Intel 2015
January 19, 2015
