Corn’s billion bushel question

Corn’s billion bushel question

Tighter supply projections for corn could have wide ranging effects.

The USDA’s recent quarterly stocks report showed a smaller than expected supply of old crop corn. Dale Durchholz from Grain Cycles tells Brownfield, that’s the same as removing two bushels per acre from new crop production, which impacts demand, “When you look at that, you really have to start to tighten down. Whether it’s livestock feed, maybe ethanol we take a little bit out of, but in particular, you start taking some bushels out of those corn export projections to keep the new crop carryover over a billion bushels.”

Durchholz says even at current price levels, the USDA taking new crop ending stocks below a billion bushels would bring speculative buyers back to the market, pushing prices even higher.

.