[joelcolorado]

Watch the news. The corn crop is in trouble this year. How timely. Some of the ethanol plants out in Colorado and Kansas are already mothballed or shut down before they started due to cost of grain.
Wait til we have a hot summer like normal. The dryland corn that I saw last year in eastern colorado will be worthless. I have never seen so much corn planted on so much land in a semi-arid area. Average rainfall out there is less than 12 inches a year.
Record rainfalls of late, makes the farmers think that they can do that every year. God bless em. Hope it works out.

Corn hit new highs today on the market.

kk

[Cashmere]

Well, when the 4 horsemen arrive, they're not going to take it easy on us.

And they're here.

[bkwillia]

Crop insurance rules have a lot to do with how farmers react to delayed planting or replanting. Acreage that was insured for corn, cannot be replanted with soy until July 1 if the farmer wants to retain coverage. Corn that is planted late or replanted after June 5th gets 1% reduced coverage per day for 25 days.

With soy prices falling, and corn prices rising, no soil will go unplanted with corn that was insured for corn. The wild card is the final yield which is only partially based on planting conditions. With the high soil moisture, a hot dry summer might be just the ticket for optimal harvest conditions. New corn varieties are proving to be better adapted to late season dryness and insurance companies give a discount to farmers planting GMO corn.

[Micki]

Combine that with this:

Larry Matlack, President of the American Agriculture Movement (AAM), has raised concerns over the issue of U.S. grain reserves after it was announced that the sale of 18.37 million bushels of wheat from USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation

“According to the May 1, 2008 CCC inventory report there are o­nly 24.1 million bushels of wheat in inventory, so after this sale there will be o­nly 2.7 million bushels of wheat left the entire CCC inventory,” warned Matlack. “Our concern is not that we are using the remainder of our strategic grain reserves for humanitarian relief. AAM fully supports the action and all humanitarian food relief. Our concern is that the U.S. has nothing else in our emergency food pantry. There is no cheese, no butter, no dry milk powder, no grains or anything else left in reserve. The o­nly thing left in the entire CCC inventory will be 2.7 million bushels of wheat which is about enough wheat to make ½ of a loaf of bread for each of the 300 million people in America.”

Article

[WisJim]

Replanting the corn crop also depends on a supply of seed corn that has a season to maturity short enough to ripen in the shorter remaining season. And in some areas seed corn is in short supply--this is getting late in the season to consider planting unless it is a short season variety.

[Denny]

Looking at the field conditions in Indiana, even it it stays dry for the next two weeks, I wonder how many days until they could replant there? Wow, from the TV news, it looked like the whole state became a giant pond. Maybe they could consider growing rice.

[lorenzo]

This is good because it shows that biofuels are made from biological material, which has its local ups and downs.

As long as there is this idiotic "energy independence" myth, you will see trouble. The only way forward with biofuels is in an interdependent scenario which involves a very large number of producers spread out all over the globe, with consumers trading and buying from these many different sources to spread risks.

[Tyler_JC]

When they try to replant the crop, they are going to have to shell out much higher prices for fertilizer, seeds, diesel, etc.

I think a lot of farmers might just sit this year out or try different crops.

I would not want to be the owner of a corn ethanol refinery right now.

[lorenzo]

I would not want to be the owner of a corn ethanol refinery right now.

Well, if oil prices do hit $150 before the harvest, I'd still want to be that ethanol refinery owner, because I'd still turn a good profit.

[hardtootell]

Well, when the 4 horsemen arrive, they're not going to take it easy on us.

And they're here.

Ridin so hard they gittin saddlesore!
Gidyup

[smacl61]

I'm sure someone has said it before or hinted at it, but isn't ethanol from corn possibly the dumbest idea intelligent humans have come up with, ever?? Doesn't anyone realize that food is more important than fuel? Especially when greed takes over there wont be a single corn bush that is not used for ethanol production, and food prices will absolutely skyrocket as the global demand for food required by humans and animals continues to grow.

Monsanto will likely fill every field with highly modified corn strains optimized for fuel conversion not safe for human consumption. The vast quantities of Carbon dioxide generated in fermentation will certainly contribute to global warming and further acidification of oceans, when the sheer magnitude of this fuel production plan is considered. (Anyone out there ever made wine before?)

This is a very dumb idea indeed, not only endorsed by president Bush but legislated into law! Big oil companies have jumped on it by financing these plants and promoting the fuel it as a "green" something that is good for us all. Some suggest the entire corn crop will be needed to meet these expectations according to the timeline set out by the Bush administration. Maybe this is just another resource up for grabs and no doubt after big oil get hold of it and exploit it with the full greed factor - we'll be wondering why it costs so much to eat - let alone drive our cars to the grocery store!

[darwinsdog]

People have begun to wisen up on the idea that growing food for fuel is a dumb idea. But rather than dump the idea of growing fuel altogether, the new bandwagon is cellulosic biomass fuels. This is an even dumber idea but since it doesn't directly take food from the mouths of hungry people, just how dumb an idea it is has been slow to catch on.

[smacl61]

Well with over 350 new ethanol plants being built it will be a hard plan to reverse when people finally wake up the fact they are being screwed once again. But this time it will be in their own backyards, not some foreign oil producing country. Eventually big oil cartels will force farmers to relinquish their farms and prepare for another mass corporate takeover, screwing everybody in the process. We'll all be buying our food from China when the dust settles, that will be interesting knowing that China has a different approach to quality control of food products as we have seen. And do you really think the price at the pump will drop finally?

There is enough energy out there and smart people here that can utilize it in creative and interesting ways, but the political will and motivation behind big corporations will almost certainly guarantee that other countries like Japan, India and China will adopt and benefit from smart energy strategies long before we ever do. Its already happening. We'll be stuck with the "stupid' plan our leaders have put us on! And the public at large will be so dumbed down that they wont know any better because of the "green" marketing plan devised in some board room was enough to satisfy their curiosity.

People better wise up before it's too late!

[misterno]

If corn production is in trouble why is the price came down so much?

From $790 to $650

What am I missing here?

[Ludi]

I have never seen so much corn planted on so much land in a semi-arid area. Average rainfall out there is less than 12 inches a year.

That's f.uckin' nuts. You can't grow corn under those conditions. These people are insane.