Corn Drops 4% on the Week, Repricing the Energy Board

Corn slipped 4% on the week to $4.23/bu (delivered ethanol plant), pulling the energy benchmark to 4% below its 5-year median per USDA. As the energy anchor for the substitution board, a corn move reprices every cost-per-TDN comparison on the leaderboard. On protein, sunflower meal holds the top spot at $0.240 per pound of crude protein on a dry-matter basis, 71% of soybean meal's cost, with soybean meal benchmarked near $324/ton FOB.

• Sunflower meal leads protein at $0.240/lb CP (71% of soybean meal), followed by feather meal at $0.253/lb CP (74%). Crude protein coefficients are book values from published feed-composition tables, priced against USDA's ~$324/ton soybean meal benchmark FOB.
• Hominy feed leads the energy board at $0.075/lb TDN (77% of corn), with soybean hulls at $0.092/lb TDN (94%) and wheat middlings at $0.096/lb TDN (98%). All are dry-matter basis against the ~$151/ton corn benchmark.
• DDGS at ~$178/ton prices energy at 115% of corn's cost per pound of TDN and protein at 98% of soybean meal's cost per pound of crude protein. Energy sits above the corn benchmark. Protein sits 2% under soybean meal on this week's board.
• Yellow grease is running well above 5-year medians across all quoted regions per USDA: California Central Coast FOB plant at $65/ton (95% above its 5-year median), South California FOB plant at $65/ton (53% above), Chicago delivered at $72/ton (45% above) and Minnesota choice white grease at $82/ton FOB plant (65% above), up 2% on the week.
• Almond hulls are quoted at $70/ton FOB plant (Sacramento Valley) and $95/ton FOB plant (South California), 44 to 51% below 5-year medians. Both series are stale, not updated in over two weeks per USDA reporting.

Corn at $4.23/bu (~$151/ton as-fed, delivered ethanol plant) and soybean meal at ~$324/ton FOB are the week's benchmarks.

Per USDA reporting, 40 series including almond hulls and alfalfa pellets have not updated in over two weeks. Those figures are stale.