10/31/08 Correcting crop report

October 10th, USDA issued its crop report. Earlier this week it did something it had never done before. USDA revised the acreage and production report this week to show fewer acres of corn, soybeans, canola, sunflowers and dry edible beans were planted. The revised forecast was made after discrepancies were found in a Farm Service Agency data base used by National Ag Statistics Service where Joe Prusacki had the unenviable task of telling everyone about the mistake. PRUSACKI "It looks like the date inconsistencies were in the northern tier of states, eastern and western corn belt. Still FSA is working to determine what caused this problem and information will be provided later on." Gerald Bange of the World Outlook Board says there were about one million fewer acres of corn planted than were reported on October 10th. BANGE "The impact on production was about 167 million bushels. That means we've got a little less supply to work with." But it's still the second largest US corn crop and Bange also raised the average price forecast by a nickel to $4.75. Even with revised numbers the soybean crop should be the fourth largest ever. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott