Author Description

As of May 6, 71 percent of the U.S. corn crop had been planted, compared with an average of 47 percent in 2007-11 and 32 percent in 2011/12. As of the same date, 32 percent of the expected crop had emerged, compared with an average of 13 percent in 2007-11 and 6 percent last year. Early planting boosts the projected yield for 2012/13 to 166.0 bushels per acre, compared with last year's weather-reduced yield of 147.2. Rapid planting and emergence is also likely to affect supplies during the last quarter of the 2011/12 marketing year, resulting in reduced prospects for the June-August quarter feed and residual disappearance.