The corn price here surged, but not as much as in Iowa, bringing pork production costs in this province closer to in line with the Cornbelt
by Randy Duffy
The rise in feed costs during the last half of 2010 and into 2011 has the pork industry concerned. Much of the blame for the increase in corn prices is the volume of corn used in ethanol production. The latest estimate by the USDA has ethanol using 38 per cent of the 2010/2011 U.S. corn crop.
The ideal situation would be if the ethanol producers would use alternatives to corn as their feedstock source. However, this is not probably going to happen any time soon.