Kansas-based analytics firm, Main Street Data, is predicting the U.S. ag market will see record-setting 2020 corn yields of 183 bushels per acre. This forecast is above the 178.5 bushels per acre the USDA has forecast. According to Main Street, the most significant contributing factor to the bumper crop is the optimal weather conditions occurring during the critical silking stage.  

The 2019 Main Street Data forecasts, made at about this time of the year, were within 0.1 of a bushel of the USDA corn final result and within 0.3 of a bushel from the USDA’s soybean final result. 

“Calling the national number as soon as possible, and then zeroing in on local acres as accurately as possible, is vital to enable the agriculture ecosystem to improve and optimize their decisions,” said Bob McClure, Main Street Data chief data scientist. “We expect our number to be higher than USDA and other forecasters, so we wanted to release it now to let growers, retailers, lenders, insurers and traders plan accordingly. It’s going to be a big year and we want the industry to make the most of it.”