A newly released government forecast shows Kansas crops have taken a heavy beating in the past month from the scorching heat and drought.

The state’s corn is among the most severely damaged. A revised forecast pegs the size of the corn crop at 495 million bushels, down 15 percent from last year.

The forecast comes even though Kansas farmers planted 5.1 million corn acres this spring — more than at any time since 1936. But much of the corn acreage was devastated after a month of triple-digit temperatures during a critical stage of development.

The revised forecast for harvested acres is down to 4.5 million acres, meaning 300,000 acres were lost in just the past month.

Expected yield averages of 110 bushels per acre would be the lowest since 1983.