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Must be irrigated acreage?
While other farmers in MN hate it.
This year if you need to by feed your hating ethanol and the drought.
Surprisingly even with the lack of rain MN corn is doing fairly well.
Good for these farmers but the rest of the country is not so lucky as their crops failed.
"We were set out to raise, what we thought was probably largest corn crop in the history of American agriculture. And yet now, we're in a challenge of looking in some cases at no crop in this state to a half a crop," said Philip Nelson, President of the Illinois Farm Bureau.
The USDA has declared more than 1,000 counties and over 26 states as drought disasters. These are the areas where the 2012 corn crop has been seriously impacted. It has been estimated that yield in these areas could be reduced by 60 to 100 percent.
Minnesota Ag Connection - 09/13/2012
Corn production for Minnesota, based on September 1 conditions, is forecast at 1.29 billion bushels, up 1 percent from the August 1 forecast and up 7 percent from last year's production of 1.20 billion bushels, according to the USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service, Minnesota Field Office. Yield is forecast at 156 bushels per acre, up 1 bushel from last month, but unchanged from last year's 156 bushels per acre. Acres to be harvested for grain, at 8.25 million, are up 7 percent from last year. If realized, this would be a new record high for acres harvested for grain.
The better-than-expected harvest estimate sent corn prices tumbling to their lowest levels in seven weeks. Corn prices had jumped 54% since June as the drought continued to roast corn belt states.
Corn hit a record high of $8.49 a bushel in August. After the USDA report, corn futures for December delivery fell to $7.6675, their lowest price since July.
According to the government, this year’s harvest will still be 13% below 2011′s 12.358 billion-bushel yield and the lowest harvest in six years.
Sep 12, 2012, 12:31 pm EDThttp://investorplace.com/2012/09/usda-corn-crop-larger-than-expected/
Sep 12, 2012, 12:31 pm EDT | By Christopher Freeburn, InvestorPlace Writer
The lingering drought in the Midwest did not hurt this year’s corn crop as much as feared.
A report issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Wednesday forecast this year’s corn harvest at 10.727 billion bushels. That was down from an earlier forecast of 10.779 billion bushels, but well above the 10.420 billion bushels that analysts had predicted, Bloomberg noted.
"Abundant supplies of wheat and feed grains in the rest of the world are providing stiff competition for U.S. corn. The current year is ending with very strong demand for corn for ethanol production, but demand after the first of the year is much more uncertain due to the expiration of the blender's tax credit. Longer term, the rate of growth in corn-based ethanol production will likely be limited due to peaking renewable biofuels mandates and limited production capacity," he said.
Using corn for fuel ethanol is and always has been a bad idea. Using food (animal or people) corn is just a way of cycling Federal Money into the Midwestern Red States as payment for their Republican votes. It also subsidized equipment manufacturers and local bankers. It also puts smaller farmers out of business. For some these are all good things.
The best and most efficient use of bio fuel is recycled cooking oil or vegetable oil derived from a non food crop. Diesel engines use about 2/3 rds the fuel for the same power but require more robust engines. The Europeans have been using them for decades and AUDI has won several years at Le Mans with diesel engine race cars.
Currently because of new regulations, new diesels are unable to run outside of a very small percentage of bio.
Ethanon from corn is the epitome of government mandated disasters.
The culprits being obama, Bush, Perry and anyon other elected official who endoorses this legislation.
The only explanation is kickbacks to wealthy corn growers.
To subject our economy to the vagaries of the weather and then mandate 40% of the corn crop is to be used for fuel is beyond shortsighted incompetence.
Toss in the EPA mandating special formulations of gasoline by region and you have ensured high energy costs that are crippling to our economy.
No one seems to complain about food prices except the people who have to buy food. where is the media?
the repubs and dems coluded to start this and it falls within obama's professed strategy of skyrocketing energy costs under his energy plan...yet to be revealed.
A repub senator is the guy who introduced legislation to eliminate incandescent light bulbs and use of mercury bulbs. both sides have proven to be a disaster but it is taking off exponentially under Obama and his energy czars.
A pox on the house of any legislator who supports mandated ethanol.
Despite our dissatisfaction with both parties, it is important to vote for MR as the larger concern is socialism or capitalism. We are at a cross road and must choose between two very different paths and set aside, for the moment, other concerns.
This ethanol in gas has already increased food costs whenwe can least afford it and reduced the MPG in our vehhicles.
Ford says they will not recommend it in their manuals nor will they warranty any engine that uses it.
Some have realised it was a mistake, can damage cars, uses a lot of water to produce, but the madness continues;
The Obama Administration’s anti-hydrocarbon ideology and “renewable” energy mythology continues to subsidize crony capitalists and the politicians they help keep in office – on the backs of American taxpayers, ratepayers and motorists. The latest chapter in the sorry ethanol saga is a perfect example.
Bowing to pressure from ADM, Cargill, Growth Energy and other Big Ethanol lobbyists, Lisa Jackson’s Environmental Protection Agency has decided to allow ethanol manufacturers to register as suppliers of E15 gasoline. E15 contains 15% ethanol, rather than currently mandated 10% blends.
The next lobbying effort will focus on getting E15 registered as a fuel in individual states and persuading oil companies to offer it at service stations. But according to the Associated Press and Washington Post, Team Obama already plans to provide taxpayer-financed grants, loans and loan guarantees to “help station owners install 10,000 blender pumps over the next five years” and promote the use of biofuels.................read rest at above link
Oh yeah, don't hurt the middle class just slowly force them to buy new cars. I think I'd rather have Putin for president.
The local ethanol plant was idled this week due to high corn prices......It won't be the last one.....
Green energy, whether it's wind, solar or biofuel, is fickle, unreliable and expensive. If the sun does not shine, the wind does not blow, or we have a bad corn crop, then costs go up. All green energy does is add more instability in the market and artificially run up costs to the consumer. the more green energy we force into the market, the less stable and more costly energy will become.
With a coming shortage of fresh drinking water, and so much hunger in the world, why the push to turn perfectly good farmland into biofuel production? This will use up more fresh water, dump more phosphates and nitrates into our lakes and rivers, drive up cost and create instability in both the energy and food market. all this, just to push his agenda, and maybe buy a few more votes.
Green energy, whether it's wind, solar or biofuel, is fickle, unreliable and expensive. If the sun does not shine, the wind does not blow, or we have a bad corn crop, then costs go up. All green energy does is add more instability in the market and artificially run up costs to the consumer. the more green energy we force into the market, the less stable and more costly energy will become.
One should note that oil is the same way.
There is nothing wrong with research and advancements into other technologies. The problem with both sides is that it has to be a balanced thing. We are not going to switch over to "green" energy in the foreseeable future but we are going to have to.
Livestock gain weight 30% faster on 15% less DDG feed from ethanol plants than they do on corn. With ethanol production we have more food than without. Animal feeders can't even be competitive anymore without feeding their livestock Ethanol's DDG feed.
We will have 4 next-gen cellulosic ethanol plants operating next year.
Poet, the largest ethanol maker in the U.S., has turned down a $105 million federal loan guarantee that would have financed it's cellulosic ethanol plants. Poet announced it has established a joint venture with life sciences company Royal DSM to commercially demonstrate and license its cellulosic ethanol made from corn cob and crop residue. The joint venture, called POET-DSM Advanced Biofuels LLC, is scheduled to start production in the second half of 2013.
Poet has been working towards commercial production of next-gen cellulosic ethanol for more than a decade. In 2006, it partnered with DuPont to find cost effective ways to bring corn stover-ethanol to market. Two years later, Poet built a pilot plant in Scotland, South Dakota, where it began testing its cellulosic ethanol production process. Poet plans to eventually scale up its production to 25 million gallons a year at Project Liberty, the company’s long-planned cellulosic plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa.
This has been hashed out over and over again and the evidence is all over yet they march FOREWARD. It is green after all. Bush started the madness and Obama is just doubling down.
This has been hashed out over and over again and the evidence is all over yet they march FOREWARD. It is green after all. Bush started the madness and Obama is just doubling down.
Patzek and Pimentel were laughed out of the scientific community after big oil paid them $25 million to rig studies & publish paper stating that ethanol takes twice as much energy to produce as it contains.
The facts are that Corn Ethanol returns 3 times more energy than is consumed producing it. It has a better EROEI than gasoline from Canada's Tar Sands.
What can you expect from idiots who are told what to think by the TV & radio. Real science makes their brain bleed.
Last edited by KrazeeKrewe; 12-04-2012 at 09:08 PM..
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