North American Risk Management Services reports that ethanol refiners are consuming more of the U.S. corn crop than livestock producers and will remain the top users until at least 2014.  The Service reports that corn use for ethanol rose almost fourfold from 1.323 billion bushels in 2005 to 5.021 billion, exceeding 40 percent of the total harvest last year. Feed, which previously accounted for the biggest share of the crop, fell 22 percent during the period to 4.792 billion as livestock and poultry farmers turned to alternative feed, including dried distillers grain, an ethanol byproduct.

Jerry Gidel, a market analyst for the Chicago based firm, says – ethanol may consume as much as 5.1 billion bushels of corn in the year that began September 1, or 41 percent of the crop. Feed demand is forecast to drop to 4.6 billion bushels, the lowest since 1990, after the U.S. cattle herd on July 1 fell to the smallest for that date since at least 1973 and chicken producers curbed output because of poor profit margins from high corn costs.

Gidel expects – demand for corn from ethanol producers will likely exceed feed consumption for at least another 24 months. While the growth in ethanol production will slow, it will take awhile before meat production expands.