By Gregory Meyer in New York

Global grain production is growing as farmers chase high prices, according to US government figures, suggesting food inflation pressures may abate in the months to come.

Farmers will harvest 681.2m tonnes of wheat and record crops of 860.1m tonnes of corn and 461.4m tonnes of rice in the current year, the US Department of Agriculture said, as it raised output forecasts for each grain in its monthly report.

The brightening outlook comes after grain prices returned to levels last reached during the food crisis of 2007-08.

?It is a function of higher prices: farmers increased plantings this year,? said Erin FitzPatrick, agricultural analyst at Rabobank.

Futures weakened on the report with CBOT December wheat down 4.7 per cent to $6.29? a bushel and CBOT December corn falling 1.5 per cent to $6.35? a bushel.

Corn has declined from its record high of $7.99? in early June.

Wheat has also softened after Russia and Ukraine lifted export bans imposed in response to a historic drought last year.

Grain markets could rise yet again if La Ni?a, the Pacific weather pattern, strengthens and hurts crops in exporting nations Argentina and Brazil.

Russia this week also indicated that it would impose a cap on grain exports, although not an outright ban, as it attempts to battle inflation.

Rice supplies could be curbed if the government of Thailand, the largest exporter, buys the grain from local farmers and stockpiles it.

Grain supplies remain on a razor?s edge in the US, the largest agricultural exporter.

USDA cut its estimate of the size of this year?s domestic corn crop by 0.5 per cent to 12.4bn bushels, although it left yield forecasts unchanged.

Corn stocks by next summer will total 866m bushels, 29 per cent larger than the agency?s previous forecast.

Crop shortfalls in the US have been supplanted by robust and often lower priced harvests elsewhere.

?The theme of this report was that, at high prices, world production continues to grow,? said Don Roose, president of US Commodities.

USDA also lowered average price forecasts for corn, wheat and soyabeans.

? The Financial Times Limited 2011