The yield forecast, at 4.34 tons per acre, was 9 percent below a year earlier. The U.S. corn for grain forecast is 273 million tons, up 4 percent from 1997. California's 1998 all dry bean production is forecast at 2.20 million cwt. The 105 thousand acres for harvest were 20 percent below last year. The forecast yield of 2,100 pounds per acre is 7 percent below the 1997 yield.
Harvest continues in California.
Cooler weather has slowed drying. U.S. dry edible bean production is forecast at 31.1 million hundredweight, up 7 percent from a year earlier. Harvested acreage is up 11 percent, but average yields were down 4 percent. California's final 1998 winter wheat production, estimated at 684 thousand tons, was 24 percent below last year's output. U.S. winter wheat production is estimated at 56.6 million tons, slightly above the 1997 crop.