BUSINESS OF FARMING
B Y M A X W. R U N G E
Record High Yields Predicted for Alabama
As Alabama farmers are finishing the 2020 harvest for corn, soybeans, cotton and peanuts, it’s always interesting to see how the crops turned out, how the current year’s yield compared to the last few years’ and how do our yields and production (yield times acres) compare to our past. While it’s still too soon to know the final statewide yields, early indications are that Alabama’s row crop farmers had a good production year. The United States Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service Crop Production report has predicted that Alabama will have near record high yields. Table 1 has the 2020 estimated yields, 2015-2019 annual yields, and the five-year average.
If the 2020 yield estimate holds for Alabama producers, the peanut yield would be the highest yield on record with corn and cotton producing the second highest yields, and soybeans would be the top 10 for
Table 1
Source: https://quickstats.nass.usda.gov/
November 2020
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