The USDA attributed the decline to the drought the Midwest experienced in June and early July, which was the worst since 1988. 

Initially it was thought that this year would be one of the biggest harvests on record, but because of damage to crops, that is no longer expected.

The department now expects farmers to harvest about 12.97 billion bushels of corn instead of the 14.79 billion it predicted in June.

“We had a great start, but last week’s heat really damaged the crops,” said Scot Docherty, general manager at Illinois’ Topflight Grain Cooperative, in an interview with Bloomberg. “Some farmers are not going to harvest one bushel this year. It’s very disappointing.”