By: Bruce Clevenger, CCA, Ohio State University Extension
The 2018 Ohio county estimates for crop yields were recently published by the USDA-National Agricultural Statistics Service. This annual report provides a look back to the previous production year and give an average of planted and harvested acres as well as the county yield in bushels per acre and a total estimated production for the county. The report additionally groups counties into nine reporting districts and provides an overall state yield estimate for corn and soybean. Ohio county estimates for the 2018 wheat crop were released back in December of 2018.
Western Ohio continues to lead the state in both corn and soybean yields and production. The counties leading the corn yield estimates were Greene, Clinton and Auglaize Counties reporting 214, 213 and 210 bushels per acre, respectively. The State corn yield estimate for Ohio is 187 bushels per acre with a total production estimate at 6.17 million bushels. The counties leading the soybean yield estimates for 2018 were Mercer, Auglaize, and Van Wert Counties reporting 67.5, 66.3 and 65.7 bushels per acre, respectively. The State soybean yield estimate for Ohio is 58 bushels per acre with a total production estimate at 2.88 million bushels.
The Ohio county estimates are valuable to farmers, crop insurance, economists, and USDA. Revisions to this data can be given at a later date by USDA. The complete data can be viewed online in the searchable Quick Stats or the County Estimates reports. Corn data is available from 75 Ohio counties whereas soybean data is available from 72 Ohio counties. All the current data is available online at: https://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Ohio/ or questions can be directed to the Ohio Field Office at 8995 East Main Street, Reynoldsburg, OH 43068 or call 614-728-2100.