Corn Crop Heading for Record to Feed 1 Billion Cows: Commodities
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Farmers will reap a record corn crop for a sixth consecutive season in 2012, slowing a slump in stockpiles of livestock feed as global meat demand approaches a quarter of a billion metric tons.
Production will rise 4.8 percent to 867.5 million metric tons in 2011-12, curbing the drop in inventories to 0.8 percent, the smallest decline in three years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates. With harvests expanding from Argentina to China, prices will fall as much as 31 percent to $4.305 a bushel in Chicago trading next year, according to the median of 24 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg News.