US corn futures on the Chicago Board of Trade fell Wednesday on ideas of reduced feed use after the government said it would open more than 24 million Conservation Reserve Programme acres for foraging cattle, traders said.
The move by the US Department of Agriculture is intended to help the cattle industry cope with high feed costs.
At the CBOT, July corn settled 5-1/2 cents lower at $5.92-1/2 per bushel, with new-crop December down 6 at $6.19-1/2. Funds sold 5,000 contracts, traders said. Overnight volume was very heavy at 25,960 contracts, compared with 10,507 lots the previous session. Corn was underpinned by the slow pace of US corn emergence. Some 8.5 million corn acres yet to be seeded due to wet, cool weather, analysts said.
USDA said late Tuesday only 52 percent of the US corn crop had emerged by Sunday, in line with trade expectations but well below the five-year average of 76 percent. USDA said the US corn crop was 88 percent planted, within trade expectations for 85 to 90 percent but behind the five-year average of 94 percent.
More rains expected to move through the Midwest over the next week, slowing planters, but temperatures will turn warm by the weekend, a DTN Meteorlogix forecaster said. Cash basis bids for corn were flat in the US Midwest, with farmer sales quiet.CBOT July oats settled 4 cents lower at $3.90 per bushel.
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