Record harvests have resulted in historically low commodity prices.
Ethanol provides a vital value-added market for corn and other commodities.
The use of grain for ethanol production adds up to 30 cents to every bushel of corn. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, ethanol production adds 30 cents to the value of a bushel of corn. Ethanol production is the third largest use of U.S. corn, utilizing about 7 percent of the corn crop. More than 900,000 farmers are members of ethanol production cooperatives. One bushel of corn yields at least 2.5 gallons of ethanol from the starch component of corn.