Ethanol to exceed corn's role as livestock feed

Queensland Country Life
8/08/2009 4:00:00 AM

IOWA State University, US, energy economist Robert Wisner predicts that within three years demand for corn for ethanol may well exceed the traditional largest source of demand for corn – livestock feeding.

Wisner, however, says the current US ethanol blend wall (10pc) limits the market for ethanol, thus tending to depress its price relative to gasoline.

He forecasts that unless the US Environmental Protection Agency decides to authorise the higher E12 or E15 - blends that ethanol boosters seek - ethanol prices may continue dropping relative to gasoline, slowing ethanol industry expansion and putting downward pressure on US corn prices.

Read the full story