2-15 IAN Corn Factors

What’s up with corn?

There’s a lot of action on the corn crop this year and it’s interesting sitting on the sidelines. You hear producers that are elated over prices of corn which are way up, you hear brokers talking commodities as in corn is a way to make money, the USDA recently announced that yields weren’t as big as projected earlier in the year. It seems like there’s a lot of corn talk so I talked with Mark Lambert of the NATIONAL CORN GROWERS ASSOCIATION: “There are some media people blaming ethanol. If you look at some of the more informed sources, they’re looking at $100/barrel oil again which drives markets, a lot of speculators drive prices, would we be looking at higher corn prices based on that information as the market adjusts to any kind of report like that?  You’ll see some impact but largely it’s being driven by other forces. We wouldn’t see corn this high if it weren’t for speculation in the market. There’s some fear buying going on right now, some countries have seen this information and the downgrading of the crop and you’ve seen what’s going on overseas with some concerned about supplies and prices.” What Mark meant when he said downgrading of the crop was that yield numbers are somewhat lower than they were projected to be before harvest.