corn

Ethanol profitability hit a record high of $4.50 a bushel in the last week of March, $2 above the previous record, for a "representative Iowa ethanol plant," says economist Scott Irwin of U-Illinois at farmdocdaily. Profits surged because of high gasoline prices, comparatively low costs for corn, large exports, low inventories and a sluggish transport system.

Slowed by a cold and wet spring, farmers have planted 29 pct of corn land in the 18 major states, 13 points behind the five-year average of 42 pct planted by the first week of May, says the weekly Crop Progress report. A week ago, planting, at 19 pct, was 9 points behind average. If corn is planted after May 20, yields are lower.

With a wet and cool spring in the Farm Belt, "it would not be surprising for (corn) acreage to fall short of intentions, particularly in northern growing areas," says economist Darrel Good of U-Illinois at farmdocdaily, unless corn prices improve.

Cold, wet weather is holding the spring planting season to a slow start, says the weeklyCrop Progress report from USDA. At the start of this week, 6 pct of corn was planted in the major states vs the usual 22 pct.

Using corn residues - stalks, husks and cobs - to make biofuels appears to create more carbon dioxide over their life cycle than the target set by federal standards, says research at the University of Nebraska.

The National Weather Service forecasts more precipitation than usual in the Midwest, the Plains and the Pacific Northwest for late April, which could delay spring planting but relieve dry conditions in the western Corn Belt and the central and southern Plains.

USDA has lowered its forecast of the U.S. corn stockpile for five months in a row and the current estimate, of 1.33 bln bu, is down 29 pct from November, when growers were harvesting a record-large crop, writes economist Darrel Good of U-Illinois.

Nothing says spring planting like snowfall across the upper Midwest in mid-April, does it? Up to five inches of snow fell in north central Wisconsin on Monday with forecasts of an inch or two of snow today in Detroit and Toledo.

Strong overseas demand for U.S. corn and soybeans will mean smaller than expected stockpiles in coming months, the government said in a monthly update of crop output and usage worldwide.

Ag economist Art Barnaby of Kansas State University created a 13-page summary of the crop subsidy and federally subsidized crop insurance provisions of the 2014 farm law.

U.S. farmers intend to plant more land to soybeans and less to corn than traders expected, the Agriculture Department said, based on a survey of 84,000 growers nationwide.

Record yields will result in record large US corn and soybean crops, USDA said at its Outlook Forum, based on current commodity prices, which affect plantings, and on normal weather.

The EPA proposal to relax the ethanol mandate could pinch the market for biofuels made from crop debris, grass and wood, says a front-page story in the Des Moines Register.

The corn earworm is a widespread crop pest, particularly in the U.S. South, and adept at quickly developing resistance to genetically engineered crops. Over time, researchers looking at lab-selected strains of earworm have identified 20 genes that harbor mutations conferring resistance to pest-killing proteins in so-called Bt crops, which have been genetically engineered to produce bacteria that repel the earworm.