UACES Facebook NASS final estimates: Ark shows records for all major crops
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NASS final estimates: Ark shows records for all major crops

Fast Facts

  • Final 2013 NASS estimate shows five crops breaking records in Arkansas
  • Sorghum explodes at 102 bushels per acre, up from fall estimates

JONESBORO, Ark. – Arkansas’ farmers can’t be blamed if they seem optimistic going into the 2014 growing season, having set records in five crops, according to final figures released Friday by the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

The final production estimates for Arkansas state average yields show:

  • Corn at 187 bushels per acre, a new record.
  • Sorghum at 102 bushels per acre, a new record.
  • Rice in at 168 bushels per acre, a new record
  • Soybeans at 43.5 bushels an acre is a new record and
  • Cotton at 1,149 pounds per acre is also a new record.  

It’s the second straight year for record state average yields in corn, rice and soybeans for Arkansas. 

The corn estimate was well up from a NASS estimate in the fall of a 175-bushel-per-acre state average yield for corn and the estimated 85 bushels for sorghum.

“These are fantastic yields considering the poor start we had in March-May with the cool, wet conditions,” said Jason Kelley, extension wheat and feed grains agronomist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. “Amazing what we can do when everything comes together right later in the season.

“No extreme heat and cooler-than-normal temperatures for parts of the summer definitely was a major player in getting yields up that high,” he said. “Yields of corn and grain sorghum are both considerably higher than the trend line state average yields.” 

The 2013 growing season was a great one for soybeans, as yields edged the old record of 43 bushels per acre set in 2012 and three growers exceeded the long-elusive goal of 100 bushels per acre. Cotton’s 2013 yield was well over the 1,114-pounds-per-acre set in 2004. The former rice record of 166 bushels was set in 2012. 

For more information about crop production, contact your county extension office or visit http://arkansascrops.com, or www.uaex.uada.edu. Please note that many links to extension publications will be changing this spring as the extension service renovates its site.

The Cooperative Extension Service is part of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture and offers its programs to all eligible persons regardless of race, color, national origin, religion, gender, age, disability, marital or veteran status, or any other legally protected status, and is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.

January 10, 2014

By Mary Hightower 
The Cooperative Extension Service
U of A Division of Agriculture

Media Contact: Mary Hightower
Extension Communications Specialist
U of A Division of Agriculture
Cooperative Extension Service
(501) 671-2126
mhightower@uada.edu

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