The USDA maintained its forecast for 2020-’21 corn use in ethanol production in its latest World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report, released Dec. 10. The forecasts for U.S. corn supply, use and season-average farm price were also unchanged.
The forecast for corn area harvested held steady at 82.5 million acres. Expected yields were also unchanged at 175.8 bushels per acre. Corn production for 2020-’21 is expected at 14.507 billion bushels, up from 13.62 billion bushels in 2019-’20. An estimated 5.05 billion bushels of corn is expected to go to ethanol production in 2020-’21, up from 4.852 billion bushels in 2019-’20, but down from 5.378 billion bushels in 2018-’19. The season-average farm price for 2021-’20 was maintained at $4 per bushel. Beginning stocks are expected at 1.995 billion bushels, with ending stocks at 1.702 billion bushels.
