George C. Ford, CR Gazette –
Iowa corn producers are primarily using on-farm storage to hold their 2011 crop, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Sixty-four percent of the 1.95 billion bushels of corn produced by Iowa farmers was stored in bins on the farm on Dec. 1, according to a report from the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. That’s up 3 percent from Dec. 1, 2010.
Forty-four percent of the 422 million bushels of soybeans harvested last fall were stored on the farm on Dec. 1, according to the USDA report. That’s up 9 percent from the 387 bushels on hand Dec. 1, 2010.
Nationally, 6.18 billion bushels of the total U.S. corn crop of 9.64 billion bushels were stored on the farm on Dec. 1, down 2 percent from Dec. 1, 2010. Off-farm corn storage totaled 3.47 billion bushels, down 8 percent from a year ago.
The USDA report showed 1.14 billion bushels of the U.S. total soybean crop of 2.37 billion bushels was stored on the farm on Dec. 1, up 4 percent from a year ago. Off-farm soybean storage totaled 1.23 billion bushels on Dec. 1, up 3 percent from Dec. 1, 2010.
