UIUC Weekly Outlook: Cattle Can Eat Corn Too

"The same can be said for the pork industry and again brings into question the low level of corn feeding that USDA continues to use in their supply and demand estimates," he said. "They have feed and residual use down 2% while animal numbers and use appear to be closer to up 2%."

If this is so, this represents an added 150 to 200 million more bushels for feed use. In addition, slightly smaller corn use for ethanol reduces distiller's availability. Added to the accumulating corn demands of the animals industries are very strong margins for the ethanol industry and their ability to pay much more for corn than current prices, he said.