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Huge Corn Crop vs. Good Usage

USDA says the corn crop will be as good as it looks. Their field samples came up with a national average yield of 148.9 bushels, which blows the top off the previous record yield and calculates out to a whopping 10.923 billion bushel crop. The average pre-report trade estimate was 10.78 billion.

The only good news for the corn market is that USDA also sees record usage in 2004/05, thanks in large part to continued growth of the ethanol industry. The carryover projection is big at 1.13 billion bushels, but that’s not as large as many feared. However, the government’s price expectations were scaled down dramatically. The range for the expected average cash prices was slashed 25¢ to $2.05-2.45.

Editors note: Richard Brock, The Corn and Soybean Digest's Marketing Editor, is president of Brock Associates, a farm market advisory firm, and publisher of The Brock Report.

To see more market perspectives, visit Brock's Web site at www.brockreport.com.