The 2024/2025 Harvest Report has been designed to help international buyers of corn understand U.S. yellow corn’s initial quality as it enters the market channel. This is the fourteenth annual survey of the quality of the U.S. corn crop at harvest. Fourteen years of results show patterns in the impact of weather and growing conditions on the quality of U.S. corn as it comes out of the field. The 2024 growing season was characterized by quick emergence, warm conditions during the growing season, ample moisture and milder temperatures during pollination, and warm, dry conditions during dry-down and harvest. Given these generally favorable growing conditions, the average yield is projected to be the highest on record. Despite slightly lower harvested hectares compared to last year, total production is projected to be 384.64 million metric tons (15,143 million bushels). If realized, this would make the 2024 U.S. corn crop the third largest on record.
The favorable growing season conditions and timely harvest helped produce a crop with good grain quality. The 2024 crop had higher test weight, lower damage, and lower BCFM compared to their respective 5YAs. In addition, the crop had the highest test weight and 100-kernel weight in the history of the report and tied 2012 for the lowest average moisture in the history of the report. With these quality factors, the 2024 crop, on average, is entering the market channel with characteristics that meet or exceed each grade factor’s numerical requirements for the U.S.
No. 1 grade corn. The report also showed that 89.2% of the samples met all grade factor requirements for U.S. No. 1 grade, and 96.2% met the grade factor requirements for U.S. No. 2 grade corn. These data have laid the foundation for evaluating trends and the factors that impact corn quality. The cumulative reports also enable export buyers to make year-to-year comparisons and assess patterns of corn quality based on crop growing conditions across the years. See details.
Source: Email/GFMM
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