WASHINGTON (AP) – The nation’s soybean crop is on track for its best year ever, and the corn crop is expected to be the second-best, the Agriculture Department said Thursday.

Prices are continuing to rise, according to the monthly crop report. The soybean price forecast rose 50 cents from last month, to $5.40 to $6.40 a bushel, and the corn price forecast rose 40 cents to $2.80 to $3.20 a bushel.

Farmers are likely to plant more acres in corn next year because of vigorous demand for ethanol, said Keith Collins, chief economist for the department. More than half the nation’s corn surplus is expected to evaporate, according to the report.

“We will not have the stocks to draw down next year like we have this year,” Collins said. “As a result of that, we’re going to need substantially more acreage into corn. And that’s what the market is signaling.”

As the soybean and corn harvests near an end, lawmakers are preparing to return to Capitol Hill in a lame-duck session to press for billions of dollars in disaster assistance for farmers hit with drought and other weather problems. The Bush administration had held off on more aid to see how the harvest would go.

In the meantime, high prices are good news for grain farmers. But for chicken and dairy farmers, rising prices are making feed more expensive and reducing production of milk and chicken meat.

The production forecast for meat and poultry dropped slightly, from an expected 91.4 billion pounds last month to just under 91.2 billion pounds.

The outlook for soybean production improved slightly from last month, while the forecast for corn production dropped 1 percent in the monthly crop report.

Nationwide, soybean production is forecast at 3.2 billion bushels, up from 3.19 billion bushels last month and 3.06 billion bushels last year.

Corn production is forecast at 10.75 billion bushels, up from 10.9 billion bushels last month and more than 11 billion bushels last year.

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On the Net:

Crop reports:

http://www.usda.gov/oce/commodity/wasde/index.htm

http://www.nass.usda.gov/

AP-ES-11-09-06 1425EST