US wheat harvest to slump 12% this year, USDA says

American farmers will harvest a record corn crop this year, but in part at the expense of wheat production, which will slump by 12%, the US Department of Agriculture has said.

The USDA has pegged the corn harvest at 13.16m bushels, 200m bushels more than proposed earlier this month in its so-called baseline forecast.
The rise, which puts the crop marginally ahead of last year's, was attributed in part to cheaper fertilizer costs, a particularly big input cost for corn.

"Net returns to corn production are expected to be much improved from 2009 as fertilizer prices have fallen from their highs during the fall and winter of 2008-09," the USDA, adding that it was nonetheless factoring in a "return to trend yield" from last year's bumper result.

The department also edged its forecast for soybean output 30m bushels higher to 3.26bn bushels, while noting the crop would lose acreage to corn and cotton.