U.S. Corn Crop Decrease Could Further Fuel Great Ethanol Debate

U.S. Corn Crop Decrease Could Further Fuel Great Ethanol Debate - Seeking Alpha

U.S. farmers will produce 10% less corn this year than they did a year ago, driving demand [?] to a 13-year low and further enflaming global rhetoric aimed at diversion of the staple crop for use in biofuels.

Corn production will fall to 11.735 bushels compared with last year’s crop of 13.074 billion, Bloomberg News reported, citing a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

About 89% of the corn crop had emerged from the ground as of June 8, and only 60% of the crop was in good or excellent condition. At this time last year, 98% of the corn crop was ready for harvest and 77% was found to be in good or excellent condition.

Next year’s harvest is expected to be even worse, as cold, wet weather delayed planting in the Midwest.

“We need sun,” Christian Mayer, a broker and market analyst for Northstar Commodity Investments LLC, told Bloomberg. “The corn needs time to develop a better root system” to improve yields.