(NAFB) Ethanol producers have been setting production records this year. Ten times over the last 14 years, the U.S. has produced more than one-point-one million gallons of ethanol in a week. Half of those record-setting production weeks have come this year, and November has been a doozy. Three weeks in a row, renewable fuel production made from corn has topped 1.1 million gallons. Ben Brown from the University of Missouri says that’s a solid level of production.
This record-setting ethanol production pace has been supporting the price of corn locally. However, the agricultural economist does not expect it to last because the profitability in the sector is seasonal. The fall harvest represents the greatest availability of corn, and consequently, higher weekly ethanol runs. That pace, he says, is likely to fade into the holidays.