USDA’s World Agriculture Supply and Demand Estimates report released recently confirms this fall’s harvest will have a significant shortfall. The 2008-09 corn and soybean harvest will fall below “normal” crop expectations and fail to meet market needs, said the report. Specifically, the USDA report indicates that supply of corn and soybeans is even more precarious than originally thought.
“U.S. farmers in the coming year will need to bring at least 5 million more acres into production in order to meet growing demand for grains and oilseeds,” said Bill Roenigk, National Chicken Council senior vice president and Alliance for Agricultural Growth and Competitiveness (AAGC) chairman. With tillable acreage available in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), AAGC has renewed its call and urged Agriculture Secretary Schafer to re-evaluate his August decision in light of the report and allow penalty-free, early opt-out for producers with non-environmentally sensitive acreage idled in the CRP.
