October 3, 2006

 

US corn growers meeting market demands, says USDA

 

 

There has been a 15-percent increase in cattle placed on grain rations this year compared to last year according to the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA)  Cattle on Feed report, published in August.

 

The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) thus deferred its producers were more than adequately meeting the demands of all markets.

 

US corn is supplied to the feed, fuel, food and export markets.

 

More than two million cattle were placed on grain rations in August, a 15.4-percent increase from the same month last year. Feeder placements in 2006 also have been running ahead of 2005.

 

The report also indicates that the majority of the increased placements have been feeders under 700 pounds. The large number of lightweight calves is a result of poor pastures resulting from recent drought conditions in some parts of the country.

 

While the drought may have had some negative impact on ranchers, Bill Chase, chairman of NCGA's Production and Stewardship Action Team, said this would increase the domestic demand for corn and distillers dried grains (DDGs).

 

According to Chase, corn and DDGs have been essential feed sources in this drought year, supplementing critically short grass and hay availability in the daily rations.

 

Chase also noted corn growers are meeting demand for the expanding ethanol market. For the current year, ethanol production is expected to reach approximately 5 billion gallons, a 28 percent increase from last year using almost 1.8 billion bushels of corn. Last year, the ethanol industry which produced 3.9 bilion gallons used 1.4 billion bushels of corn.

 

Pro-Exporter Network estimates beef cattle to consume almost 1.7 billion bushels of corn, the largest amount of any livestock species. Incidentally, this is 200 million bushels higher than last year. Using USDA's current 154.7 bushels per acre average yield, that's almost 11 million acres of corn going toward beef rations.

 

In addition, beef cattle are expected to consume a significant portion of the nearly 12.5 million tonnes of DDGs produced by the dry mill ethanol industry.

 

In 2005, livestock and poultry accounted for more than 55 percent of all corn usage.