Although U.S.D.A. kept the average corn yield at 163.5 bushels per acre, the harvested corn acreage was decreased from 81.8 million acres to 81.0 million acres. Ending corn stocks for 2010-11 were reduced 200 million bushels from the June estimate to now estimated at 1.373 billion bushels.
Corn for ethanol manufacturing, however, continues at 4.700 billion bushels for 2010-11 compared with 4.500 billion bushels in 2009-10. The board raised its average corn price at the farm level for 2010-11 to $3.45-$4.05 per bushel, 15 cents higher on both ends of the previous price range. In 2009-10 the comparable corn price was $3.50-$3.60 per bushel.