AP News, January 16th, 2008
The Nebraska Corn Board is touting the state's crop in a new report.
The report says that last year Nebraska farmers harvested a state record 1.47 billion bushels of corn, and more than 90 percent of it was graded the best corn you can buy.
The Nebraska Corn Board said Tuesday that 91 percent of the crop tested at Grade No. 1. The 2007 test was the third in a row to hit 90 percent or higher.
There was no test in 2006, said Corn Board spokesman Randy Klein, but the 2005 test hit 97 percent Grade No. 1, and the 2004 test hit 92.3 percent Grade No. 1.
The report on the Nebraska Corn Quality Study is distributed to corn buyers and trade teams. High-quality corn produces higher-than-average sales and helps the state's image in export markets.
Klein said that near as he knew, no other states perform such widespread testing on its corn crop — 188 samples collected statewide from corn producers and elevators.
He said the Nebraska Corn Board is confident it would be among the national quality leaders because so much of the crop is grown on irrigated land — 70 to 75 percent of the harvest on 60-65 percent of the planted acres.
The reliable watering helps reduce plant stress, he said.
A spokeswoman for the Iowa Corn Growers Association said his major corn-producing state doesn't perform similar testing. Neither does South Dakota, said a spokeswoman for the South Dakota Corn Growers Association.
Mike Hoesing of Aberdeen Grain Inspection Services in Aberdeen, S.D., said his company tests individual batches but has no statewide figures to compare with Nebraska.
The Nebraska testing began in 1991, Klein said, and since then 74.5 percent of Nebraska corn has hit Grade No. 1. He isn't worried about the slight drop in quality from the 2005 test.
"Every year there's going to be fluctuation," Klein said.
To be rated Grade No. 1, the corn must weigh at least 56 pounds per bushel and the average bushel can contain no more than 2 percent foreign material or broken kernels.
In more good news, the 2007 crop also contained no excess aflatoxin, a fungus toxin that can cause liver problems in animals that feed on tainted corn.
Mike Callahan, director of international operations at the U.S. Grains Council, said most of the Grade No. 1 corn "will find its way into the food-use sector."
"It is the industrial corn processor who would be mostly interested in No. 1, food-grade corn, particularly dry millers who make snack foods or corn grits," Callahan said. "They would normally have to pay a premium to get No. 1 corn."
The Nebraska Corn Board report projected that about 7 percent of the 2007 crop will go overseas, 21 percent will be sold to other users outside Nebraska, 25 percent will go to animal feed, and 47 percent will be processed in Nebraska. Of that 47 percent, the report said, more than three-quarters will go to ethanol plants and the remainder will be used for human food.
___
On the Net:
Nebraska Corn Board: http://www.nebraskacorn.org
National Corn Growers Association: http://www.ncga.com/
U.S. Grains Council: http://www.grains.org
South Dakota Corn Growers Association: http://www.sdcorn.org/
Iowa Corn Growers Association: http://www.iowacorn.org/
