Chicago Board of Trade corn futures fell on Thursday, with the benchmark December contract sliding more than 3% after the US Department of Agriculture surprised traders by raising its estimate of the US 2019 corn yield. CBOT December corn settled down 14 cents at $3.80-1/4 per bushel, the contract's biggest single-day slide in nearly two months.

The USDA in its monthly supply-demand reports raised its estimate of the US average corn yield to 168.4 bushels per acre, up from 168.2 last month. Traders on average had expected a reduction. The USDA estimated US corn production 13.779 billion bushels, down slightly from September as a cut in harvested acreage offset the higher average yield.