Uncle Loren

Uncle Loren takes a break from reading this antique issue of the Post to have a photo taken.
Uncle Loren is shown mowing at Wood Haven Farms that he operates with Uncle Claire. One of their fields is shown in the background. As you can see in this photo the field has not had crops planted in it yet.

Uncles Loren and Claire are grain farmers concentrating on corn and soybeans. Iowa has kept its title as the nation's leading corn and soybean producer. The state's farmers produced 2.37 billion bushels of corn and 439 million bushels of soybeans in 2007. That compares with Illinois which produced the second largest crop at 2.28 billion bushels of corn and 350 million bushels of soybeans, according to USDA's annual crop production "final estimates" released in January 2008.

Increased acres and yield led to the increased corn production this past year. Farmers in the U.S. harvested 86.54 million of the 93.60 million corn acres planted for grain in 2007. In Iowa, farmers harvested 13.85 million corn acres for grain after planting 14.2 million acres. In 2006, Iowa harvested 12.35 million acres of 12.6 million acres planted.

Corn yields increased in Iowa and the U.S. in 2007, says Brad Parks, statistician with Iowa Agricultural Statistics, the government agency that is the Iowa branch of USDA's National Ag Statistics Service. Iowa ended up with a corn yield average of 171 bushels per acre compared to 166 bushels in 2006 and 173 bushels in 2005.

"The estimated 2007 U.S. corn yield is the second highest on record behind 2004," says Uncle Loren. "Corn production in the U.S. for 2007, however, is still the largest on record because farmers harvested the most corn acres since 1933."

U.S. soybean production at 2.59 billion bushels in 2007 is down 19% from the record large crop of 2006. "We had a huge U.S. soybean crop in 2006," he explains. "But in 2007 the U.S. average bean yield was 1.5 bushels per acre below the 2006 yield, and harvested acres across the U.S. were down 16% from 2006, to 62.8 million acres."

Iowa's 2007 bean yield at 51.5 is still the second best yield ever for the state, behind 2005's 52.5 bushels per acre.