Corn advanced on Wednesday following reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that forecasted pre-harvest inventories in the U.S. to fall more than expected as demand for livestock feed and ethanol increases.

Corn futures for May delivery increased by 1 percent or 6 cents to $5.972 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade.

Corn futures have increased by 31 percent this year and corn prices increased by 64 percent last year.

The USDA said reserve supplies for corn will total 1.283 billion bushels by Aug. 31 less than 1.304 billion last year.

According to USDA, U.S. corn exports this year were forecasted to increase to 2.5 billion bushels compared to 2.125 billion bushels shipped last year.

The amount of corn for animal feeds was forecasted to rise to 6.15 bushels compared to 5.598 billion last year.

The USDA forecasted corn used for ethanol production to be 3.1 billion bushels.

World corn reserves were forecasted to fall by 4.8 percent to 103 million metric tons compared to 108.2 million last year.