Just been watching the corn market this morning - pretty flat action on Tuesday, hovering around unchanged. The national average cash corn price ticked up slightly to $4.05, which is interesting given how sideways things have been. Grabbed some corn news updates from USDA showing a private export sale of 196,000 MT heading out to unknown buyers, so there's still demand flowing through.

What caught my eye though is the grain crushing report. January ethanol production used 460.95 million bushels of corn - that's actually below what people were expecting and down nearly 1.5% year-over-year. December was higher too, so we're seeing some pullback there. South Korean importers picked up 133,000 MT overnight across a couple separate tenders, which shows international buyers are still active.

Looking at the contract action: Mar corn closed down 1 cent at 4.32 1/4, May corn up a quarter at 4.46, and Jul corn gained 3/4 cent to 4.55. Nearby cash stayed at 4.05. For anyone following corn news closely, this mixed picture with weak ethanol demand but steady export interest is worth monitoring. Could see some volatility if crush margins shift or if we get more surprise export sales.