Corn harvest out of sync

The highly sophisticated, scientific farmers when I was growing up always said the corn crop was good if "you could bury a jug in it by the 4th of July."

In a lot of the corn belt of the U.S., which includes Iowa, parts of Nebraska and Kansas, Illinois and Indiana, this year that was not the case. The highly technical, scientific way corn is raised today, the official terms were that it silked late and tasselled late. This was due to a late spring, late moisture and summer temperatures that never did heat up to the maximum.

In practical terms, this means harvest will be one to three weeks later in the fall. That's fine, if the weather gods give you a hot first few weeks in September and early October. More likely, at least some areas will turn cold or even freeze and a less than bumper crop will be harvested. This has played out the last few days on the Chicago Board of Trade, where corn futures have risen, after a prolonged slump, on the basis that the crop will not be as big as projected.

There might not be enough corn to go around, between the needs of ethanol producers, livestock feeders and poultry producers, and corn refiners who make corn syrup to sweeten soda pop, commercial baked goods and candy.

An unusually late and hot fall, could send all these projections into the tank too. Farmers have always been at the mercy of the weather, and 2008 is no exception.