USDA: High corn, bean prices to continue

Des Moines Register: The U.S. Department of Agriculture Wednesday said that despite lowered production due to drought, corn supplies will be slightly larger than forecast earlier due to lower demand for exports and livestock feeding.

Even so, the USDA said that corn prices will remain above $7 per bushel and soybeans prices will stay in in the $15-$17 per bushel range.

In its monthly supply and demand report the USDA said “U.S. corn supplies for 2012/13 are projected 108 million bushels higher as an increase in expected beginning stocks more than offsets lower production this month.”

“Exports for 2011/12 are lowered 10 million bushels reflecting the slowing pace of shipments during August,” the USDA said. “Feed and residual use for 2011/12 is lowered 150 million bushels based on the record level of crop maturity and harvest progress as of September 1.”

The USDA projected slightly lower corn prices, in the range to $7.20 to $8.60 per bushel. In early trading Wednesday on the Chicago Board of Trade, new crop corn was down almost 9 cents per bushel to $7.69, a six week low.

Soybeans were up 11 cents per bushel to $17.12. Soybeans are faced with their tightest worldwide supplies in more than a decade....

Cracked earth from 2011, shot by Al Jazeera English, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license