Rain pushes corn to another record high

Farmers are worried that excessive rain in the US Corn Belt will damage
recently planted crops and hurt yields, adding to the food inflation that has
driven up the price of everything from eggs to meat to bread.

Last week’s
rain-fed jump in corn prices was the largest one-week rally in the contract’s
history.

Corn prices on Wednesday surged above $7 a bushel for the first
time, pushed higher by Midwest rains that have flooded fields and left farmers
with the prospect of a significantly smaller crop.

Corn prices are poised
to go even higher, analysts say. Weekend showers dumped as much as 200 mm of
rain over parts of Iowa, Illinois and Indiana, and forecasts predict more bad
weather.

US farmers were expected to plant 86 million acres of corn this
year, but wet weather in Midwestern states has left an estimated 4 million acres
unplanted.

With the corn planting season already over, farmers will
either leave them empty and take insurance payments or switch the acres over to
soybeans, which have a later growing cycle.

Corn’s jump — its fifth
record in as many days — means more headaches for consumers, who can expect
higher beef, pork and chicken prices as livestock owners are forced to thin
their herds and flocks to cope with higher costs for corn-based animal
feed.

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