This year’s average test weight, moisture and total damage better than the 5-year average
The 2020-21 U.S. corn crop has a higher quality than in the past five crop years, according to the U.S. Grains Council’s (USGC) 2020/2021 Corn Harvest Quality Report.
The 2020 U.S. corn crop is entering the market with a higher average test weight and lower moisture and total damage than the average of the previous five years, the report said.
USGC said favorable growing conditions resulted in an average aggregate quality of samples that were better than the grade factor requirements for U.S. No. 1 grade corn; 84.7% of the samples met the grade factor requirements for U.S. No. 1 grade and 94.5% met the grade factor requirements for U.S. No. 2.
The 2020 corn crop has a higher average protein concentration than 2019 and the five-year average, lower average starch concentration and 2019 and the five-year average and lower average oil concentration than 2019 and the five-year average.
More than 99% of the samples – all samples except for one – tested below the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) action level for aflatoxins, and 100% of the samples tested below the 5 parts per million FDA advisory level for deoxynivalenol (DON) or vomitoxin. Of the samples tested for fumonisin, 98.9% tested below the FDA’s strictest guidance level of 5 parts per million, according to USGC.
The 2020-21 U.S. corn crop is expected to be the third largest on record at 368.49 million metric tons or 14,507 million bushels, and has the third highest average yield on record at 175.8 bushels per acre, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimate. The crop was planted slightly ahead of the average pace and saw generally favorable conditions throughout the growing period.
“This ample supply allows the United States to remain the world’s leading corn exporter and accounts for an estimated 36.4% of global corn exports during the marketing year,” USGC Chairman Jim Raben said in the report.
The USGC report is based on 601 yellow corn samples taken from defined areas within 12 of the top corn-producing and exporting states. Inbound samples were collected from local grain elevators to measure and analyze quality at the point of origin and provide representative information about the variability of quality characteristics across diverse geographic regions.
