Death comes to us all. Life's but a walking shadow | Perhaps, just perhaps we, producers and certainly the traders don't appreciate the worldwide appetite for protein. Apparently last year the world devoured our 87 mmt crop and Brazil's 85 mmt crop at $11 or more prices. Maybe we producers and certainly the traders haven't grasp this yet. Something like half the world's population lives in cities and they are hungry for protein. Right now soybeans are the only practical way to produce and transport protein in quantity. At a 45 bushel per acre yield we can grow 540 lbs of protein (2700 lbx 20%) and 480 lbs of oil (2700 lb x 18%), packaged in a stable, concentrated form and transport it almost anywhere in the world in bulk. 165 bu. per acre corn can produce 740 lbs of protein but in three times the package volume and at much higher nitrogen fertilizer cost.
And this argument about the higher price being an incentive for Brazilian producers to plant more soybeans. They were already on track to plant substantial more soybeans and the driving force behind that is the price corn. |
OK so help me with something
