According to the US Department of Agriculture, the country will reap the second largest corn crop ever and the fourth highest yield in soybean crop. The report led to a rise in the share prices of meat processing and ethanol producing companies during the afternoon trading session on Tuesday.

The report brought out by the US Department of Agriculture says that the corn yield is expected to be around 12.3 billion bushels. The numbers are a welcome revision of previous month’s estimate of 11.7 billion bushels. The report also predicted that corn prices would come down and settle between $4.90 and $5.90 a bushel which is around sixty cents lower than the estimate given in June this year. The report was welcomed by meat processing companies like Smithfield Foods, Pilgrim’s Pride, Hormel Foods and Tyson Food.

The soybean harvest is expected to be around 2.97 billion bushels, according to The USDA report, which is slightly lower than last month’s estimate of three billion bushels. The prices of soybean prices are expected to settle down between $11.50 and $13 a bushel which is fall of around thirty cents from the prices predicted in June.

According to the USDA report, a larger corn crop will mean that around 4.1 billion bushels can now be used for ethanol production which is higher than previous estimates of 3.95 billion bushels.

-Kalyani Mookherji