Ethanol's Effects On Cattlemen Offers Many Unknowns

[aplusmnt]

Found this interesting for those that think ethanol will rid us from sending our dollars to the towel heads.

since corn needs much more fertilizer than crops like soybeans, not only is the price (up 35%) of fertilizer going up but Much of that fertilizer will be imported. It takes natural gas to produce nitrogen fertilizers. In 2005 the United States imported 21% of the urea it turns into nitrogen fertilizer from Saudi Arabia and Qatar How much you think they will import now and in the future.

Here we are being sold ethanol at the hope of reducing our dependency on foreign oil from countries like Saudi Arabia but in the end we are importing more of their product as a result of it.

Another interesting point was since ethanol can not be transported through existing pipelines since it is more corrosive, then it is shipped by truck and train. Also there is more hauling all the way around, corn has to be hauled there using oil, DDG has to be hauled away using more oil. So we use more Fuel and oil to haul it both ways which adds to list of reasons why we will not see less oil being imported from the sands abroad.

 

[feeder]

We have a biodiesel plant coming that use bean,corn oil. Also another oil I can't remember. Also they will use animal fat from Tyson. The fat is already contracted for whenever the plant is up and running. I hope this is the wave of the future. I'd rather pay more for domestic oil than foreign.

 

[SHAWN]

Found this interesting for those that think ethanol will rid us from sending our dollars to the towel heads.

since corn needs much more fertilizer than crops like soybeans, not only is the price (up 35%) of fertilizer going up but Much of that fertilizer will be imported. It takes natural gas to produce nitrogen fertilizers. In 2005 the United States imported 21% of the urea it turns into nitrogen fertilizer from Saudi Arabia and Qatar How much you think they will import now and in the future.

Here we are being sold ethanol at the hope of reducing our dependency on foreign oil from countries like Saudi Arabia but in the end we are importing more of their product as a result of it.

Another interesting point was since ethanol can not be transported through existing pipelines since it is more corrosive, then it is shipped by truck and train. Also there is more hauling all the way around, corn has to be hauled there using oil, DDG has to be hauled away using more oil. So we use more Fuel and oil to haul it both ways which adds to list of reasons why we will not see less oil being imported from the sands abroad.

I do not know about down south, but all our urea comes down from Canada. Agrium is a canadian company they even have plants in Alaska. If we cannot produce it ourselves, I guess I would rather import from Canada than the arabs or Venezuela. Shawn

 

[HAY MAKER]

Nelson urges livestock groups to relax over ethanol
Wednesday, June 13, 2007, 3:29 PM

by Peter Shinn

The ethanol industry needs a national campaign to combat the negative publicity it's getting for its support from the federal government. According to a report from the Omaha World Herald, that's what Doug Durante, executive director of the Clean Fuels Development Coalition, a Washington D.C. advocacy group, told the Nebraska Ethanol Board Tuesday.

Durante's remarks came as the nation's major livestock groups this week urged the Senate to abandon efforts to more than quadruple the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS). The chairman of the Nebraska Ethanol Board is Jim Jenkins of Callaway, himself a cattleman. According to the World Herald article, Callaway said ethanol's critics don't understand its benefits to rural America and are ignoring the fact that cheap corn subsidized the cattle feeding industry for decades.

Also on Tuesday, Iowa GOP Senator Chuck Grassley argued for unified backing of ethanol across the entire agricultural community. He called ethanol's opponents within that community "selfish." And Wednesday, Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson urged the nation's livestock groups to ratchet back the rhetoric on ethanol.

"I think they ought to take a deep breath," said Nelson.

Nelson told Brownfield he wouldn't necessarily describe livestock producers who are worried about the high price of feed as selfish. But he did encourage the livestock industry to take a broader view.

"We've got to also think about the interest of others," Nelson counseled. "And I'm sure that there's some corn farmers that'll tell you that they don't feel that guilty about having $4 corn prices."

Nelson pointed out 21 million gallons of the proposed 36 billion gallon RFS by 2022 is earmarked to come from cellulose, not corn. And he said his legislation encouraging development of biogas from livestock waste is one way Congress is taking direct action to include the livestock industry in the renewable fuels boom. And he also

"We're trying to find a way for everybody to benefit, not only from less reliance on foreign sources for oil," Nelson said, "but for everybody to benefit from the creation of alternative fuels."