Michigan farmers are expected to see significant declines in crop production after a wet spring left thousands of acres unplanted.
According to a report from the USDA corn production is expected to be down by roughly 9%, soybean production by 31%, and dry beans by 15%.
Ty Calaus is with the USDA. He said state farmers will see across the board decreases in crop production.
“It’s definitely a detrimental weather year and we’ll try to keep track of these projections as these final numbers come in,” he said.
Theresa Sisung is with the Michigan Farm Bureau. She said nearly 900,000 acres of farmland went unplanted and the impacts aren’t just in Michigan.
“The weather we had this spring and then as well as the blizzard we had that’s come through and effected some some pretty big production areas that’s affecting producers all across the country.”
Sisung said nationally corn production declined by 20 million bushels compared to last year. Soybean production declined by 83 million bushels.
Sisung said every farmer in the state is likely to be impacted in some way.
“We really probably won’t know the true impacts of this year until next year and even later down the road,” she said.
Sisung said the state has already taken steps to help farmers through this time, including by offering low-interest loans.