No doubt, but you haven’t the insight of what makes a farmer a farmer. That's where the real difference and motivation is.
The recent jump in prices has whetted the appetites of farmers who have never had the opportunity to do what they have yearned to do since they were little boys, grow the biggest damn crop that piece of ground has ever produced.
There are but a handful of farmers who know what it’s like to farm without some government official telling them they are raising too big of a crop.
98% of farmers today have only farmed under the thumb of the government. Those chains may be falling away, and the results will be crops the likes of which the world has never seen before.
We have never had fuel mandates, especially the huge size of these mandates.
We have had similar fuel mandates since the early 80’s. At that time the mandate was MTBE or Ethanol. Most companies, unsurprisingly chose their own MTBE over ethanol.
. The increase in future corn production is heavily driven by ethanol mandates and subsidies.
The subsidies are useless at this point, there isn’t enough money in subsidies for farmers to use them.
I find the ethanol mandates and subsidies ironic. I have never read anything that indicates corn-based ethanol will ever be a viable alternative to petroleum.
They will lead to other crops that will produce ethanol more efficiently than corn does, or strains of corn will be engineered to produce ethanol more efficiently, or corn will be grown more efficiently than it currently is. In the short term, my bet is on the latter.
Although we’ve seen big increases in yields, the increases in the next years will dwarf everything that’s happened so far. We are commonly seeing 200+ bushel corn today. That was rare only 15 years ago. Soon even that will be history. Farmers, feeling their freedom will be blowing by 300 bushels in no time (It’s already occurred, it just isn’t common) and 400 bushels is only a short time behind that.
Demands by farmers for genetically engineered corn with a focus on ethanol production has been heard by the seed companies, and corn with better ethanol yields is already entering the system.
“There are but a handful of farmers who know what it’s like to farm without some government official telling them they are raising too big of a crop.’
The demand for the large crop is primarily driven by ethanol mandates. Remove the mandates and the demand will fall substantially. Any corn farmer who thinks he is farming without government intervention is deluded.
“We have had similar fuel mandates since the early 80’s. At that time the mandate was MTBE or Ethanol. Most companies, unsurprisingly chose their own MTBE over ethanol.”
The oxyenate mandates are dwarfed by the mandates in the 2007 energy act. There is no comparison. Otherwise, why have the new mandates in the bill?
“The subsidies are useless at this point, there isn’t enough money in subsidies for farmers to use them.”
I am talking about the ethanol subsidies and mandates not farm support payments. The ethanol subsidy (0.51 per gallon) and mandated usage of ethanol are enormous.
“Farmers, feeling their freedom will be blowing by 300 bushels in no time (It’s already occurred, it just isn’t common) and 400 bushels is only a short time behind that.”
Farmers are not feeling their freedom. They are feeling the wind of government mandates and subsidies for ethanol. Your freedom is everyone else’s yoke. The public does not want corn-based ethanol.
“Demands by farmers for genetically engineered corn with a focus on ethanol production has been heard by the seed companies, and corn with better ethanol yields is already entering the system.”
Unfortunately, the demands are artificially driven. The government could do the same for any good or service. Industry would respond to the mandated usage by increasing production levels to satisfy the mandate.
You need to realize that although the farm states are relishing in this government largesse, the rest of the country is suffering. If that makes you feel good, perhaps you can identify other goods or services that the government should mandate. Corn based ethanol will only lead to high fuel prices relative to the rest of the world. In addition, world food prices are being driven higher by mandates to grow fuel.
Let the rest of the world starve while the corn belt celebrates! Let’s see what happens to these fantastik yields when the next major drought hits the corn belt.