Posted on 09/22/2014 5:36:25 AM PDT by redgolum
New York (AFP) - US corn and soybean crops could break records this year, but for farmers the bounty has a dark side: falling prices and a logistics nightmare getting crops to market.
"It is not an exact science but when we look at the fields, it looks like it is going to be a big crop," said John Reifsteck, a corn and soybean farmer in Champaign, Illinois, a Midwest farm belt state.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Ping to Thackney.
We talked of this a week or so ago.
Stop ethanol and the attached subsidies, too.
It’s pretty much an exact science. Just lower the prices.
It isn’t that easy.
The corn is digest to make ethanol, and the distillers grains are then fed to the cattle. Cattle like that better than raw corn (the high carb load isn’t something cattle were made to eat).
Short term, ethanol doesn’t impact the cattle market one way or another. However if the DDG market dries up the feed costs will increase as a result of having to change the ration.
With a mind uncluttered by facts or any relevant or meaningful experience, let me offer a solution. Feed what’s perceived to be the excess to beef cattle so I can afford a couple of steaks every month or so.
Forgot to add that the ethanol market should be focusing on servicing the feed market. Not the way it is now.
To much boondoggle money makes for bad business plans.
US rail chiefs in plea on grain delays
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3200774/posts
Grain Piles Up, Waiting for a Ride, as Trains Move North Dakota Oil
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3197190/posts
See more at:
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/rail/index
LOL!
Except that with the beef prices on the hoof dropping, producers are looking at herds that were fed $8 corn being sold for prices that reflect $3 corn.
In other words, they are going to lose money. Many will not go to market, or choose not to calf, in order to try to force prices up. Long term, the prices will drop, but you will see many guys go under. Despite what the article says, most haven’t been saving the profits of the last two years. They were advised to go out and get more land and equipment at inflated prices.
Now, with the corn and soybean crash, they can’t make the payments on the loan. If they have cattle or hogs, it is even worse since we cut Russia out (that dropped the price of meat on the hoof quite a bit).
In short, I fear we are seeing the bubble burst on ag commodities. I lived through that in the 1980’s, and this is shaping up to be worse.
Thanks. Was going to look for articles on rail, but they have already been posted.
Barge traffic on the Mississippi is at record levels because of the back up of rails (and ADM and others buying up huge amounts of cheap grain, which will depress the futures even more).
Cattle can’t eat more grain. Their digestive tract isn’t designed for grain. Cattle are fed roughages with grain being fed as a portion of the ration just before slaughter. The price of your steak is not based on grain prices.
A bumper crop is bad news?
We have surely gone thru the looking glass.
Churches and private interests should have direct access to this crop so that it not go to waste. Raw unprocessed wheat, raw unprocessed soybeans. Thanks be to God for granting the growth and abundance.
>> Short term, ethanol doesn’t impact the cattle market one way or another.
Ethanol is a giant boondoggle. Citizen rape of the most arrogant order.
(Although I can understand why Iowa likes it. Every misguided government policy has a few winners, and a whole lot of losers.)
I was thinking the same thing - wasn’t there a whiskey rebellion for taxes.... as I recall (not that I’m quite that old) the whiskey was the farmer’s way of increasing profits due to the long, difficult logistics for grain and excess product availability. So they made the whiskey to sell something more in demand and reduce the logistical burden, plus it kept better. Then someone said... hey they’re making a lot of money, we need to get’s us some of dat.....or something like that.
Then along came the revenuers (sp) and ruined that idea.
Could lead to falling meat prices.
My sense is that what Russia doesn’t buy here, they’ll have to buy from someone else named SourceB. Those people that SourceB used to sell to will now need to turn someplace else to buy. There will be a shifting of markets.
A bumper crop is bad news?
We have surely gone thru the looking glass.
Bumper crops are nearly always bad news for farmers. The costs to produce are still there in good and bad times. The problem as I see it with a Bumper crop is that the price given for the farmers crops drops in times of bumper crops and they may just break even or possibly make some money.
In bad times the middle-men want to keep the prices low as they were when there was a bumper crop. The farmer’s cost’s remain the same or greater and then they will not make enough to even break even for the year.
Is there a solution? Well possibly so, it means that the farmer must expend even more money for grain storage facilities so that when commodity prices are better for him/her, they can sell the stored grain at a profit.
Knowing the government I’m sure there’s some regulation or law prohibiting that though...
When you get down to the core of it, Farming is profession of faith and an avocation, a lifestyle if you will.
Not just Iowa. A farmer in upstate NY switched to all corn to “feed” the nearby ethanol plant. He also bought additional acres. So all those “green” crops went out the window to service the well subsidized ethanol market.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.