Corn Crop Cooked

Temperatures have moderated recently and the word “moderate” can also be used to describe the hit-and-miss rains the past several weeks.

Unfortunately too little, too late for the nation’s corn crop… a crop estimated to produce the lowest yield in more than a decade.

The drought, which stretches across the U.S. from Ohio to California, is deepest in the middle of the country.

Last spring the U.S. Department of Agriculture predicted the nation’s biggest harvest ever, when farmers planted 96.4-million acres to corn – the most since 1937. The Ag Department cut its estimate a month ago and again early this week, saying it now expects the nation to produce 10.8-billion bushels – the least since 2006.

And now the really bad news – Agricultural Economist at the University of Nebraska, Dennis Conley, said he expected to see nominally higher prices in U.S. Supermarkets, although when is the million dollar question. Conley said it might be a month or two before products like using corn as an ingredient cost more.