Category: Research
China, ethanol use keeps corn stocks at 15-year lows
Share In Washington, the USDA says corn stocks will stay at 15 year lows for longer than expected with ethanol and Chinese imports as the main users of the anticipated supply. The most recent usage estimates were 3% higher than expected by traders, offsetting some of the expected increase in supply. Ethanol will become the [...]
Is corn a fertilizer hog? Times are changing, says RFA
Share In Washington, RFA Vice President Geoff Cooper took issue with the contention that US corn yields are rising because of, simply, increased fertilizer use. ”Data from USDA show that 2010 application rates of the three common macronutrient fertilizers (nitrogen, potassium, and phosphate) were the same–or below—the application rates seen in the early 1980s. Thus, nitrogen [...]
Ethanol prices jump as corn rises
Share In Illinois, ethanol prices on the Chicago Board of Trade are rallying on high corn prices thanks to a hot summer that keeps shrinking expectations for the corn crop. Crude oil prices have also advanced, helping to push ethanol prices to three-week highs, up 22% this year. The crush margin is running at between [...]
Corn prices a “statistically insignificant variable” in driving food price hikes: study
Share In Washington, Informa Economics released a new study (funded by the Renewable Fuels Foundation) entitled “Analysis of Corn, Commodity, and Consumer Food Prices”. Informa concluded that “the statistical evidence does not support a conclusion that there is a strict ‘food-versus-fuel’ tradeoff that is automatically driving consumer food prices higher.” The new study found that [...]
Trojan Corn, or 20 billion reasons to Think Outside the Tank
Share A game-changing technology from Syngenta may drop billions to the biofuels industry’s bottom line Earlier this year, Syngenta received the OK from the USDA to commercialize its alpha-amylase corn. The news generated a smattering of interest amongst the broader biofuels community, which has been more engaged in thinking about tax credits, the future of [...]
Son of Billion Ton: The 10-minute version
Share Does the 180 page Billion Ton Study update have you caught between a “must-read” rock and a “no-time” hard place? Try our 10 minute version of the landmark biomass report. In Tennessee, a research team led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory projected that the US would have between 1.1 and 1.6 billion tons of [...]
Syngenta files suit against Bunge over corn trait
Share In Minnesota, Syngenta filed a complaint in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa against Bunge North America, alleging that Bunge is attempting to block the legal merchandising of the Agrisure Viptera trait The trait provides control of 14 insects including corn borer, corn rootworm and the multi-pest complex, a collection of [...]
