USDA: Corn Use for Fuel Ethanol at 300 Million Bushels in May

Jul 30, 2020

By Erin Voegele

The USDA recently released its Grain Crushings and Co-Products Production report for July, reporting that corn use for ethanol production was at 300 million bushels in May, up from the previous month, but down from May 2019.

Total corn consumed for alcohol and other uses was 354 million bushels in May, up 18 percent from April, but down 31 percent from May 2019. May usage included 89.4 percent for alcohol and 10.6 percent for other purposes.

Corn consumed for fuel alcohol reached 300 million bushels, up 22 percent from April, but down 35 percent when compared to May 2019. Corn consumed in May for dry milling fuel production and wet milling fuel production was 85.2 percent and 14.8 percent, respectively.

Sorghum consumed for fuel alcohol production fell to 2.047 million hundredweight (cwt) (114,632 tons) in May, down from 2.716 million cwt in April and down from 5.176 million cwt in May 2019.

At dry mills, condensed distillers solubles production was at 81,971 tons, up from 78,629 tons in April, but down from 115,995 tons in May 2019. Corn oil production was at 104,898 tons, up from 89,132 tons in April, but down from 157,623 tons in May of the previous year. Distillers dried grains production was at 205,750 tons, up from 173,465 tons in April, but down from 401,171 tons in May 2019. Distillers dried grains with solubles production was at 1.23 million tons, down from 1.01 million tons in April, but down from 1.94 million tons in May 2019. Distillers wet grains production fell to 696,152 tons, down from 696,475 tons in April and 1.36 million tons in May of the previous year. Modified distillers grains production fell to 242,264 tons, down from 274,285 tons in April and 456,572 tons in May 2019.

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