Shrinking Grain Supplies Send Prices Skyward

Jan 27, 2021

Dry weather in key growing regions of the U.S. and South America has hit domestic corn production.

Analysts expect 14.2 billion bushels for the current marketing year, which is 325 million bushels less than projected in December and 1.1 billion bushels below initial projections for the 2020 crop, according to the USDA.

Corn stockpiles also are expected to fall. The USDA projects a decline of about 150 million bushels, which would lower stockpile inventory to 1.55 billion bushels. That is 1.2 billion bushels below last summer’s level. The decline was steeper than what analysts projected, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The shift in inventory led to a sharp rise in prices. On Jan. 12, corn futures rose by the maximum allowed by the Chicago Board of Trade to more than $5.17 per bushel. The price continued upward the following day.

The USDA also cut its soybean stockpile forecast and wheat stockpiles, which similarly caused those commodities to trade at their highest levels since 2014. Soybeans were above the $14 per bushel mark and wheat over $6.60 per bushel in mid-January.

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Video: What Happens When Pigs Adapt to High Soybean Meal Diets? - Gustavo Lima

In this special rerun episode of The Swine Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, Gustavo Lima, PhD candidate in Animal Science at Iowa State University, discusses how grow-finish pigs respond to high soybean meal diets. He explains the initial drop in feed intake, changes in backfat, later adaptation, energy efficiency, amino acid utilization, and the rise in nitrogen excretion at higher inclusion levels. Listen now on all major platforms!

Click here to read the full research article: https://academic.oup.com/jas/article/...

“Once they got adapted to the diet, they can handle higher levels of inclusion of soybean meal.”

Meet the guest: Gustavo Lima / gustavo-lima-a9867127 is a PhD candidate in Animal Science at Iowa State University whose work focuses on swine nutrition, ingredient characterization, energy metabolism, caloric efficiency, and applied data analysis. With more than 15 years of experience in swine production across Latin America, Gustavo also brings expertise in environmental control, performance evaluation, barn ventilation, and grow-finish housing. Learn more from Gustavo Lima on The Swine Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, available on all major platforms.