1/1/2019 · In 2016, US farmers harvested an estimated 383 million tons or 15.1 billion bushels of corn, with an average of 11.74 tons/ha or 174.6 bu/acre (USDA-FGIS, 1996s). It is estimated that 27.7 million metric tons or 1.09 billion bushels, nearly 7.3% of the crop, went to the corn-refining industry to produce corn-derived products ( CRA, 2017 ; USDA/ERS, 2018 ).