Corn price slumps to three-year low Corn prices slumped to the lowest in three years after US government surveyors counted bigger grain piles than expected, signalling the end of the era of critically low supplies that followed last year's drought. The US Department of Agriculture's estimate of domestic grain stocks as of September 1 is one of the most closely watched reports in commodities markets. It quantifies the amount of bulk grain left over before the harvest in the premier agricultural exporting country. Monday's report showed stocks were not as dire as the consensus had predicted. Corn stored in commercial silos and farm bins stood at 823.6m bushels, the lowest since September 1996 but still 21 per cent more than consensus estimates. Soyabean stocks were 140.6m bushels, the lowest since 1999 but 13 per cent more than thought. Wheat stocks were below expectations at 1.85bn bushels. "USDA surprised the market with its corn and soyabean quarterly stocks figures," said Ana Puchi-Donnelly, senior agricultural commodities trader at Marex Spectron. Wheat was on the low side but, considering it's not a major surprise, it should just be a follower. The data sent CBOT November soyabeans down 2.6 per cent to $12.85½ per bushel and CBOT December corn 2.5 per cent lower to $4.42¼ per bushel, hitting levels last witnessed in September 2010. CBOT December wheat dropped 0.9 per cent to $6.77 per bushel. "What we saw in the last quarter was with high-priced corn, we fed more wheat [to livestock]," Don Roose, president of broker US Commodities, said of the quarterly report. We also cut back on usage of soyabeans. The devastating US drought of 2012 sharply reduced corn and soyabean harvests, forcing consumers from oilseed processors to ethanol plants to ration. Corn prices reached a record above $8 per bushel in mid-2012. While stocks were low by historical standards, traders are looking ahead to large crops this autumn, including record US corn production of 13.8bn bushels. USDA forecasters recently predicted corn stocks would jump to more than 1.8bn bushels by September 2014, an estimate that will probably be revised higher in a report scheduled for October 11. Scarcity in the US has also been offset by bumper crops elsewhere in the world, including a big soyabean harvest in Brazil and corn harvest in Ukraine.