USDA: La. Yields Set Records For At Least 5 Crops
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture says Louisiana'sharvests this year include record yields for at least five crops — corn, soybeans, cotton, grain sorghum and rice. Sugarcane is still being harvested, but could be near a record.
Economist Kurt Guidry says reasons include more irrigation, better crop varieties and luck with the weather.
Rice expert John Saichuk (SAY-chuk) cautions that a rice disease called blast may have cut the harvest below the federal estimate of 6,500 pounds per acre. And AgCenter surveys put the record yield at last year's 6,717 pounds per acre.
Federal estimates for other Louisianarecord yields are 170 acres a bushel for corn, 44 bushels per acre for soybeans, 1,025 pounds of cotton per acre, and 100 bushels an acre for grain sorghum.
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