Current Storage and Handling Issues for the 2007 Crop

The October 12, 2007 crop report indicated a US corn production of 13.318 billion bushels as compared to 10.565 billion bushels in 2006. Soybean production was set at 2.598 billion bushels, down from 3.188 billion in 2006. The Iowa corn crop was set at 2.511 billion bushels versus 2.050 billion bushels in 2006. The Iowa soybean crop was established at 0.44 3 billion bushels compared to 0.510 billion in 2006. Overall, the shift from soybeans to corn represented a net increase of 2.18 billion bushels in US grain volume, approximately 0.50 billion of which was in Iowa. Increased ethanol demand has further pressured available storage by requiring that an estimated 0.50 billion bushels of Iowa corn that might have left the state remain here for ethanol use in the 2007-2008 marketing year. On average, ethanol plants have storage for about 5% of annual consumption with the expectation that the long term storage functions would be provided by farmers and elevators. The net impact is that Iowa may be short 0.6- l.0 billion bushels of covered storage for the 2007 crop