WASHINGTON, D.C. — While this year’s drought has scorched the corn crop and caused livestock feed problems and river shipping delays, the USDA believes all United States’ ag exports beginning in November will set a record.

Based on estimates it released in late August, the USDA predicted ag exports will total about $143.5 billion for the year beginning Nov. 1, 2012, an increase of about 5.1 percent over the expected total of $136.5 billion this year.

Although it is predicting lower grain exports by volume, particularly for the country’s drought-ravaged corn crop, the agency says exports by price will be up because of stronger economies overseas, higher prices for grain and low interest rates.

Ron Plain, an ag economist with the University of Missouri, noted some of the country’s largest trading partners have economies that are doing well.

“The economy in the rest of the world is doing better than our economy, so it’s getting easier to outbid the U.S.,” he said. “Some of our major customers, such as Canada, Mexico and the Pacific Rim, are doing fairly well, so I expect exports will remain strong.”

Fueling the estimated increase in total export value are higher corn and soybean prices, as well as a strong U.S. wheat crop this year, Plain said. The USDA estimates put grain and feed exports next year at about $39 billion, up by about $4.4 billion over this year’s expected total – an increase of about 12.7 percent.

“The export demand for corn and wheat is important for prices of those commodities, but the impact is somewhat muted since corn exports are now a relatively small percentage of the total consumption of U.S. corn and domestic wheat supplies are relatively more abundant,” said Darrel Good, an ag economist with the University of Illinois.

Wheat exports are expected to total about $3.2 billion next year, an increase of nearly 14 percent, according to the USDA. By volume, exports are expected to increase by nearly 12 percent in large part because of growing problems worldwide, Good said, particularly in Russia and Kazakhstan.

“With ongoing concerns about available supplies in the Black Sea region, recent large purchases by Egypt and prospects for a smaller crop in Australia, there is renewed optimism” for U.S. wheat exports, he said.

Despite drought conditions that have been the worst in nearly six decades, the nation’s corn crop is still expected to come in at an average of 122 bushels per acre, according to the USDA’s Sept. 12 crop report. At that amount, it would still turn out to be the eighth-best corn crop on record.