Record yields in the eastern Corn Belt and large crops in the Dakotas will lift U.S. corn production to the largest in history, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) projected last week in its November crop production report.

The USDA raised its estimate of the 2023 corn crop to a record 15.2 billion bushels, topping the former record of 15.1 billion bushels set in 2016. The production estimate was in­­creased by 170 million bushels as the average U.S. corn yield jumped to 174.9 bushels per...