Field Corn Cracks Top 10 Commodity List

Field Corn Cracks Top 10 Commodity List in Oregon

I’m KayDee Gilkey with the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report.

Oregon has a new member to its top ten list of agricultural commodities. Corn grown for grain and silage has joined the list.

Oregon Agricultural Statistics Service State Director Chris Mertz says field corn ranked ninth with a production value of nearly 109 million dollars.

Mertz:  “With a sizable increase in acreage we’ve been showing here in Oregon plus a nice increase in price, add that together, it shows that the value of the commodity being sold has increased tremendously from previous years.” 

Mertz says just in the past two years, the value of field corn grown in the state has jumped 111 percent. The reason for the big hike is simple. It’s related to the cost of feed.

Mertz:  “We have corn being sold for silage, and that acreage has been increasing a little bit over time. But most of it is sold for grain in the state. In our state, most of that is being sold for feed, which will help support our dairies and the feedlots in the area.”
He says Oregon’s biggest increase in acreage and field corn production is taking place in Morrow and Umatilla counties.
Mertz: “Where a lot of our bigger dairies are at and our bigger feedlots are at, in that north central area. It’s similar to other livestock production in the rest of the country. The corn is where the livestock are being fed.” 

The Pacific Northwest’s three states field corn acreage has increased 55 percent since 2000 and in 2011 there were 628,000 total acres produced with Idaho producing 350,000 of those acres. The value of those acres has increased 361 percent in that same time period.
I’m KayDee Gilkey with the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.