There was a slight increase in the “corn for ethanol” number in this week’s supply and demand report from the USDA.
According to USDA chief economist Joe Glauber, the 50 million bushel increase for 2011-2012—to just over five billion bushels—reflects the latest ethanol production and trade data. He says weekly ethanol production has increased since mid-April after gradually declining from the record levels of late December.
At the same time, Glauber explains, USDA lowered its corn export forecast by about 25 million bushels.
“That basically left ending stocks unchanged going into next year,” Glauber says. “We made no changes in area and no changes in yields—all that could happen again over the next couple of months because we’ll have an acreage report out—and then, of course, in August we’ll have our yield numbers out.”
USDA still projects the national average corn yield to be 166 bushels per acre.
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