Posted on 06/09/2011 8:23:00 AM PDT by Qbert
FREDERICK, MD - One local industry that is peaking during this down economy is field corn. According to the Maryland Office of Economic Development, the price of a bushel of the cash crop is the highest its ever been.
Eddie Mercer's 4,500 acre farm has been his livelihood for nearly 45 years and he says he has never seen the price of corn reach this level.
"This is the ultimate high," says Eddie Mercer, President and Owner of Eddie Mercer Agri-Services Inc. "The most time we've ever sold corn is maybe in the $5, but never in the $8 range."
A local agriculture expert says there are a few reasons for this never-seen-before boom. Most striking is the grain industry's globalization. There's a demand for corn all over the country and the world, and Frederick County is a major exporter.
[Snip]
The corn and livestock industries are linked. As corn goes up, so will the price of meats, and ultimately, that cost is passed on to the consumer.
"The livestock people, whether is poultry, hogs, or beef, cannot sustain a loss, you know, for an indefinite periods," says Mercer.
Mercer may be enjoying being in the green right now, but he's concerned for his friends in the business of raising livestock.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Up go beef prices
I never knew that Maryland was such a corn powerhouse of a state.
“The corn and livestock industries are linked. As corn goes up, so will the price of meats, and ultimately, that cost is passed on to the consumer.”
The real reason most people are pissed about subsidized ethanol: it competes with subsidized meat and makes it more expensive. Cheap meat has long been the goal of our farm policy, and the farmer is saying ‘screw you’ and looking to other added-value ag opportunities.
People don’t like their ethanol but they love their cheap meat. Subsidy is subsidy. I say get used to it, even if the ethanol subsidy is done away with, technological advances are still going to siphon farm products away to other added-value ag opportunities than meat, or throwing it on a barge and shipping it to China. Farmers are not going to go back to farming 50 years ago no matter how much the luddites want it to return to that.
Dayton Cargill bid line Corn june/july delivery $8.09
Katie, bar the door!
Thank you, all you slimy politicians who have given us ethanol!!!!!
In another thread we were talking about the drought in China, foreign demand from various situations, flooding in the USA and the ever increasing uses for field corn should keep the prices higher for awhile. Maybe some folks will benefit from this in rural areas.
Unintended consequences of ethanol subsidies perhaps?
http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/international/trade/2011/pdf/trad0411.pdf
Corn exports up $1.3 billion in last year, 74 mil last month.
Wheat exports up $358 mil last month!
We’ve got corn for sale at the local supermarket 12 ears for $3. I usually pick up 4 of them, soak em and toss em on the grill with some fish market tuna steaks.
What was the all-time low?
Nonsense.
In inflation-adjusted 2008 dollars, corn peaked at almost $16 in 1973. About double what it is now.
http://www.inflationdata.com/inflation/images/charts/Corn/corn_inflation_chart.htm
Go farther back in history and grain prices were much higher than today. Adjusted for inflation, of course.
So are diesel prices, parts prices, gas prices for running into town for the parts, fertilizer prices, seed corn prices,and so on and so on...
A Populist Jihad against Grrrredy Commodities Speculators is in our near-term political future, and you can take that to the bank. If the pitchfork mob has not already burned down the bank, that is.
Sweet corn isn’t the same as field corn.
In season, I have sweet corn at 10 cents/ear. if it is a bumper year, it is on the back road honor wagons for pay what you can.
Corn Subsidies** in the United States totaled $73.8 billion from 1995-2009.
Year Subsidy Amount
1995 $2,934,905,729
1996 $2,119,059,177
1997 $2,906,300,158
1998 $5,064,623,703
1999 $7,567,377,481
2000 $8,058,490,168
2001 $5,982,553,435
2002 $2,498,438,680
2003 $3,439,944,865
2004 $5,308,631,480
2005 $10,138,944,101
2006 $5,796,967,433
2007 $3,806,081,790
2008 $4,194,744,978
2009 ** $3,975,606,299
Insane.
Morgan Stanley said corn futures could hit $9 if conditions worsen.
Go figure. Fed is giving farmers subsidies to grow it for Ethanol so that the ethanol can ruin gaskets, O2 sensors and what not to artificially pump-up/replace some gas [badly]. If I could find gas without it, I’d always buy it.
AH! Okay. Thank you for the explanation.
Good point.
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