Right weather helps Pa. farmers reap good harvests of other crops

This year's apple harvest was expected to be 19 percent larger than last year's.
HARRISBURG (AP) -- Good weather conditions have helped Pennsylvania farmers produce larger crops of corn, hay, soybeans, tobacco, apples and grapes this year than in 2002.
The Pennsylvania Agricultural Statistics Service reported Wednesday that forecasts showed a rise in production for each of those crops, including an 83 percent increase in production of corn for grain, projected at 108 million bushels in 2003. This year's yield averaged 120 bushels per acre, compared with just 68 bushels per acre for last year's drought-ravaged crop.
Nationally, the harvest was projected at a record 10.2 billion bushes, up 13 percent; predictions also call for a record yield of more than 142 bushels per acre.
Hay production
Alfalfa yields rose to 3.1 tons per acre, up from 2.6 tons last year, with a projected harvest of 2.17 million tons, up 23 percent. Other hay production was projected at 2.64 million tons, up 47 percent, with a yield of 2.2 tons per acre, up from 1.6 tons last year.
Dry hay production nationally was expected to rise about 6 percent to 78.5 million tons.
Soybean production was projected at 14.6 million bushels, up 44 percent, due largely to improved yields of 40 bushels per acre, up from 26 bushels last year.
Meanwhile, soybean production nationally was expected to fall 7 percent to 2.47 billion bushels, which would be the smallest crop since 1996, in part because of lower-than-expected yields in the Corn Belt and Great Plains.
Apple harvest
The apple harvest was expected to reach 440 million pounds, a 19 percent increase over last year, and grape output was projected at 70,000 tons, up 32 percent from last year's crop. Both crops sustained extensive damage last year in a late-spring freeze.
Nationally, the apple forecast calls for a 9 percent increase to 9.35 billion pounds, while grape production was expected to drop 4 percent to 6.75 million tons.
Pennsylvania's seedleaf-type tobacco crop was expected to reach 5.28 million pounds, up 19.7 percent. Production of Maryland-type tobacco was estimated at 2.6 million pounds, up 8.1 percent over last year. Nationally, tobacco production was forecast at 844 million pounds, down 4 percent from last year and the smallest crop since 1908.