I think it was closer to 4 billion but on a demand base not much more than half of last year's- so in a sense you're not all wrong.
The biggest difference I see agronomically with '88 is that then most were still tilling a lot, still had a lot of moldboard plowpans etc. Our cultural practices have advanced a lot and while poor stands were endemic in '88- not so much this year- although I'm sure there are exceptions.
Don't know what to think although a disaster of the same magnitude as a percent of trend would put us down under 120, which I doubt.
One thing about '88 was the HUGE shocker of upwardly revised yields in the Jan '89 final. Whether we found more old corn, better yhields, whatever, we can continue to debate and never know. But it sure was amazing that some of that 4' tall IN corn popped off a little ear and pushed out 90 bu corn even though in July EVERYBODY was sure it would never see a combine.
One thing that still amazed me in recent years is how the high pops add up. Anybody's guess what happens but if you have 33K ears with .2# number 2 on average (i.e. nubbins), that is 118 bpa. At .3# it is 176.
A lot is unknowable at this point is how many of those 33K stalks will make ears, and a lot of other things.
