When the USDA released its annual crop production report last month, it confirmed Minnesota’s 2015 crop season as its best on record.
On Thursday, Feb. 18, the National Agricultural Statistics Service’s Minnesota Field Office released individual county results and confirmed 2015 was also a good production year for Rock County.
The state upped its previous record corn yield set in 2010 by 11 bushels per acre to 188. The state’s soybeans also set a yield record last year with an average of 50 bushels per acre, up five bushels from the previous record, also set in 2010.
Rock County beat the state’s record corn yield by more than 10 bushels an acre, pushing its own record to 198.8. That breaks the previous yield record set in 2005 of 190 bushels per acre.
Local production of soybeans followed suit, increasing Rock County’s record yield to 58.2 bushels per acre, up from 54. 3 set in 2010.
In total, Rock County harvested more than 27 million bushels of corn in 2015 for grain production, also a record. That amount is up from the previous record of more than 25 million bushels harvested for grain in 2013.
Likewise, the last year’s local soybean production also was the highest on record with 6.2 million bushels, up slightly from $6.1 million bushels harvested in 2005.
The average price per bushel, however, didn’t set any records in 2015 on a statewide level.
For corn, the state’s average price for December was $3.44 with more grain to be marketed in 2016.
In comparison, the average corn price per bushel was $3.48 for the marketing year of 2014.
Marketing year 2012 had the state’s highest price per bushel of corn at $6.67.
For soybeans, the state’s average price for December was $8.55 per bushel. For the 2014 marketing year the state’s average soybean price was $9.96.
The state’s record price for a bushel of soybeans is $14.30, also set during the 2012 marketing year.