United States Department of Agriculture

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28, 2012 – As of September 1, there were 988 million bushels of corn and 169 million bushels of soybeans in storage, according to the quarterly Grain Stocks report released today by the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).

By September 1, there were 314 million bushels of corn stored on U.S. farms, down slightly from September 2011. There was a significant decrease in off-farm corn stock. On September 1, off-farm storage facilities held 675 million bushels of corn, down 17 percent from the prior year. The U.S. corn disappearance totaled 2.16 billion bushels during the summer of 2012, down from the disappearance of 2.54 billion bushels during the same time period last year.

A similar situation is replicated in soybean stocks. As of September 1, there were 169 million bushels in storage. Of these, 38.3 million bushels were stored on the farms, and 131 million bushels off the farms, a 21 percent decrease for both categories. Indicated soybean disappearance during the June-August period totaled 498 million bushels, compared to 404 million bushels disappearance during the same time frame last year.

In addition to releasing its Grain Stocks report, NASS also released the Small Grains 2012 Summary, which included the final tallies for the U.S. wheat, barley and other small grains. According to the report, in 2012 U.S. small grain farmers successfully rebounded from the 2011 adverse weather. In 2012, the growers harvested 49 million acres to wheat this year, producing 2.27 billion bushels, up 13 percent from 2011. Barley producers also saw a significant increase in production from last year. In 2012, the barley production is estimated at 220 million bushels, a 41 percent increase from 2011.

To collect these statistics, NASS surveyed 66,500 grain farm operators during the first two weeks of September. The agency also surveyed nearly 9,000 off-farm grain storage facilities. In addition to its surveys, NASS representatives also conducted objective yield measurements throughout the growing season in selected grain fields. The objective measurements allowed the agency to more accurately determine small grain acreage, yield and production.

These and all other NASS reports are available online at www.nass.usda.gov.