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Ag economist: still a lot of uncertainty

An ag economist with Purdue University says the USDA’s August crop report was a surprise, especially with the challenging growing season.

Jim Mintert says planted acreage for corn was higher than expected.

“I think a lot of us are kind of scratching our head and trying to figure out if we really did have 90 million corn acres planted or maybe that’s a little on the high side and not fully reflective of the prevented planting acreage,” he says.

He tells Brownfield there is still a lot of uncertainty with final production numbers.

“We thought we were going to get complete resolution on this report, but I think we still have some questions that are unanswered,” he says.

A panel of Purdue Extension experts and the USDA Indiana statistician discussed the report today at the Indiana State Fair. Greg Matli, Beth Hall, Bob Nielsen, Shaun Casteel, Chris Hurt, and Jim Mintert participated in the program.