Corn Market Situation

December corn futures have staged a very nice rally during March from a seasonal low of $2.33 in late February to touch the $2.50 level. The rally completes a 62 percent retracement of the long downtrend from last fall. Additional bullish news will be needed to push the rally further. The March 31^st USDA Prospective Plantings Report indicated U.S. farmers plan on planting 78.2 million acres which is below the pre-report expectations. This may be the news the market needs to continue to push higher near term. Last year corn acreage was 79.5 million acres. In Georgia, farmers indicated they will plant 400,000 acres, down from one-half a million acres last year.

Old crop corn prices may come under some pressure in the near term as USDA indicated that March 1 corn stocks were higher than expected at nearly 5.7 billion bushels. This compares with the 4.9 BB of a year ago and the pre-report expectation of 5.6 BB. (George Shumaker)

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