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Chopping Corn

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4Diamond

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Chopping season is just getting started a full month earlier that normal. Most of the corn didn't even make an ear and people are trying to harvest what is there for a stalk to have some tonnage. Many fields of corn are belt to shoulder high and turning browner each day.

We aren't in the corn belt but the acorn belt. It's amazing how many people here locally planted corn for grain and even though it isn't making grain, they won't sell for those of use wanting to chop. I guess that is Farmers Optimism.

All that said it just looks harder and harder for guys feeding cattle this winter.
 
Most corn on marginal ground was planted for the crop insurance check. Crop insurance seems to be the next kink after ethanol in sustaining livestock. We've lost a lot of pasture in the area the last few years to corn fields which are relatively poor row crop producers but pretty decent pasture. Lots of those guys will tell you they can make out much $$'s ahead with a failed corn crop than pasture lease. I guess I can't blame them for doing what is profitable, but it doesn't seem real sustainable and is another knife in raising livestock.

4Diamond said:
Chopping season is just getting started a full month earlier that normal. Most of the corn didn't even make an ear and people are trying to harvest what is there for a stalk to have some tonnage. Many fields of corn are belt to shoulder high and turning browner each day.

We aren't in the corn belt but the acorn belt. It's amazing how many people here locally planted corn for grain and even though it isn't making grain, they won't sell for those of use wanting to chop. I guess that is Farmers Optimism.

All that said it just looks harder and harder for guys feeding cattle this winter.
 
I hope you will be alright feeding your stock this winter! I'm not real sure what is going on with the crops up here, but did drive by some fields yesterday with nothing in them but weeds???
 
BlackCattleRancher said:
Most corn on marginal ground was planted for the crop insurance check. Crop insurance seems to be the next kink after ethanol in sustaining livestock. We've lost a lot of pasture in the area the last few years to corn fields which are relatively poor row crop producers but pretty decent pasture. Lots of those guys will tell you they can make out much $$'s ahead with a failed corn crop than pasture lease. I guess I can't blame them for doing what is profitable, but it doesn't seem real sustainable and is another knife in raising livestock.
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That won't last long. Insurance premiums are on a field by field basis you have a couple years of failed crops you gaurenty yeild won't be squat. The premiums also go up on those failed fields. You can't make a living from a insurance check, its nice to have a backup in years like this. Especialy if your a good farmer and you have a good proven yeild.
 
You are right about farmers breaking out good pasture to grow dumpy crops though. They only see a year or two with the good insurance check then it's just crappy ground that never raises a crop and you would have a hard time getting decent grass to grow there as well.
 
ethanol helps keep the price of corn up...........if you are a feeder you want cheap corn.I don't think there will be cheap corn this year.......
 
Why are the farmers and ranchers have to be pitted against one another. It's almost like one wishes bad luck on the other so they can prosper.
 
Ethanol dosn't do nearly as much as you think to the corn price. Do you realize how much feed comes out of an ethanol plant? I can understand if you don't like ethanol because of the blenders credits and the gov help that gets them started. But the gov makes the rules. I cringe every time I here the ncba talk about ethanol demand for bushels of corn. I never here them talk about the dried distelers grain that so many people feed cows on stalks, just for example. Or the wet distilers that is in so much demand the plants are always out. The feedlots subtitute the corn that ethanol plants take with this "wet cake" and mix just about anything with it. The feedlot right where I live is paying 75 dollars a ton for wheat straw. They also take crp bales milo bales and lots of corn stalk bales. One year they almost ran out of the high moisture corn they put up the year before and they were feeding up to 65 percent of the ration wet cake. This wasn't a tiny feedlot either the owners have 5 feedlots with cap over 200,000 head. The last point I want to make is the ethanol plant close to here only takes milo. So that one can't be blamed on the demand for corn :D . I don't really want to start an argument, maybe I already did. I have cattle, and yes I do farm. I'm just tired of only hearing how ethanol plants are bad for the cattle industry, and never hearing about the feed that comes out of them.

Also I can't spell very well, so I appologize for the errors. :D
 
3 M L & C said:
Ethanol dosn't do nearly as much as you think to the corn price. Do you realize how much feed comes out of an ethanol plant? I can understand if you don't like ethanol because of the blenders credits and the gov help that gets them started. But the gov makes the rules. I cringe every time I here the ncba talk about ethanol demand for bushels of corn. I never here them talk about the dried distelers grain that so many people feed cows on stalks, just for example. Or the wet distilers that is in so much demand the plants are always out. The feedlots subtitute the corn that ethanol plants take with this "wet cake" and mix just about anything with it. The feedlot right where I live is paying 75 dollars a ton for wheat straw. They also take crp bales milo bales and lots of corn stalk bales. One year they almost ran out of the high moisture corn they put up the year before and they were feeding up to 65 percent of the ration wet cake. This wasn't a tiny feedlot either the owners have 5 feedlots with cap over 200,000 head. The last point I want to make is the ethanol plant close to here only takes milo. So that one can't be blamed on the demand for corn :D . I don't really want to start an argument, maybe I already did. I have cattle, and yes I do farm. I'm just tired of only hearing how ethanol plants are bad for the cattle industry, and never hearing about the feed that comes out of them.

Also I can't spell very well, so I appologize for the errors. :D

Excellent comments! :tiphat: :clap:
 
3 M L & C said:
Ethanol dosn't do nearly as much as you think to the corn price. Do you realize how much feed comes out of an ethanol plant? I can understand if you don't like ethanol because of the blenders credits and the gov help that gets them started. But the gov makes the rules. I cringe every time I here the ncba talk about ethanol demand for bushels of corn. I never here them talk about the dried distelers grain that so many people feed cows on stalks, just for example. Or the wet distilers that is in so much demand the plants are always out. The feedlots subtitute the corn that ethanol plants take with this "wet cake" and mix just about anything with it. The feedlot right where I live is paying 75 dollars a ton for wheat straw. They also take crp bales milo bales and lots of corn stalk bales. One year they almost ran out of the high moisture corn they put up the year before and they were feeding up to 65 percent of the ration wet cake. This wasn't a tiny feedlot either the owners have 5 feedlots with cap over 200,000 head. The last point I want to make is the ethanol plant close to here only takes milo. So that one can't be blamed on the demand for corn :D . I don't really want to start an argument, maybe I already did. I have cattle, and yes I do farm. I'm just tired of only hearing how ethanol plants are bad for the cattle industry, and never hearing about the feed that comes out of them.

Also I can't spell very well, so I appologize for the errors. :D

exactly
 
The ethanol equation will be balanced and fair when the cattle sector benefits from direct government subsidies to the same extent as the distillers have.

The availability and usage of by-product is great, but it does not offset the competitive advantage that ethanol has received through government subsidization.

Not to mention that by-product comes out with very low energy levels and the starches are what put finish on cattle.

Just another example of how government interference causes widespread distortion in markets.
 
The great by-product of ethanol is that when the US Government allowed ethanol it lost the ability to regulate prices and thus endeth the long standing policy of whatever you have to do make sure food is cheap.

Ethanol will make feeding a chalenge this year but I give it credit for last year's highs in the cattle market also. Next year's market will be a whole lot higher. The producers who took a look at efficiency after the first time corn spiked high should be in the drivers seat now where the ones who thought "glad I got that one behind us" will have to take that course over again.
 
All we hear are how many ethanol plants have went belly up and are out of business.

I agree without these plants there wouldn't be the distillers grains that many of us use. Farmers and ranchers are always pitted against each other because it seems we compete for the same slice of the pie and I for one get tired of seeing great pasture get plowed under for crappy corn. It hurts us that rent pasture because the crop guys raise the rates, then when they have a crop failure and don't plant back to grass the owner won't lease the land anymore.
 

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