2nd-Largest Corn Harvest Seen

WASHINGTON — American farmers will harvest 8.32 billion bushels of corn this year, down 6% from last year because of farm subsidy programs that require growers to leave some of their land unplanted, the government said today.

It will be the second-largest corn crop on record, although the estimate is smaller than last year’s corn crop of 8.87 billion bushels. Except for the scorching drought in the Southeast, weather has been almost perfect for corn and other major crops, the Agriculture Department said in its first official assessment of this year’s harvest.