central Iowa | redoak - 11/23/2018 18:40
John I always read your posts as they are well written,researched and just plain make sense.......All other arguments aside , my concern with ethanol is the gain after all inputs isn't large enough and it puts land into crop production that may better be suited for pasture....My thought is oil & NG is in abundance & cheap , why not use up other countries resources and preserve fertilizer,land,,ect. for the future when it might really be needed...the guys who owned a lot of land before ethanol boom have done really well , the guys buying land or competing for rental land , not so much...and corn demand has direct bearing on seed/fertilizer/machinery/land demands and prices...Here in Ontario we have a big Vomotoxin issue so a bunch of corn that is being rejected by endusers/elevators is being dumped too rot....and some are waiting for crop insurance too release there fields to destroy the crop......Just doesn't seem right destroying 200+ bu. corn....one logical solution that has been put forward is to make 1 or 2 ethanol plants just designated too VOM corn, no grading , the DDG"S would be spread back on field and plant would pay value of ethanol and nothing for the ddg'd part...so like 2/3 mkt. price.......fwiw farming looks like its moving back too historical profit levels were COP = returns for 50% of farmers...have a safe winter And another part of the problem is seed "technology" that allows us to raise 200 bu/ acre corn in Ontario. No offense. |