Indiana Farmers Popped Up Record Popcorn Harvest Last Year

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) — Indiana's popcorn farmers filled up their kettles with a record crop of the snack food last year despite an abnormally wet spring.

A report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture said the state's farmers produced a record 432 million pounds of popcorn, while also setting a record per-acre yield for the crop.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service says some farmers initially worried that planting delays during the state's wet early spring would impact production and yields.

But Greg Matli, the Purdue University-based state statistician for that agency, says the weather appears to have had little impact on the crop. He says that despite the wet spring, farmers were able to harvest most of their popcorn crop.

Indiana is regarded as the nation's second-largest popcorn producer, behind Nebraska.