Weather Effects on Expected Corn and Soybean Yields

Abstract

Drought and high temperatures during the 2012 growing season affected many agricultural production regions in the United States. For the third consecutive year, national average corn yields were reduced below trend expectations due to weather. Similarly, weather pushed national average soybean yields below trend for the second year in a row. As a result, there is a renewed interest in the relationship between weather and yields for these crops. This paper addresses this issue by developing U.S. corn and soybean yield models that account for weather and other factors.