How do farmers grow corn in Illinois and market it?

Question

How do farmers grow corn in Illinois and market it?

Answer 1

They grow corn very well in Illinois.  It is the second leading state following Iowa in the acres of corn grown in the US. It is the leading state in bu/acre.  It is marketed in several ways.  First it is taken directly to the elevators from the field.  Some farmers store it on the farm and wait until the price goes up later in the season.  Other farmers will grow their under contract, having the price for his corn set in advance.  The price for corn is reaching record highs with more and more corn being sold to make ethylene fuel.

Answer 2

Fifty years ago, corn farmers harvested ear corn at a relatively high humidity content and stored it in corn cribs, where it would dry naturally. Sometime in the winter, the farmer would empty the cribs, pass the corn through a sheller, and haul the corn to the nearest elevator.

These days, farmers shell the corn as they pick it. The corn goes into bins, where fuel is burnt to dry the corn. There's a balancing act between picking early at a high moisture rate - which dramatically increases drying costs - and picking later at a low moisture rate. Picking drying corn, the ears are more likely to shell themselves and be lost on the ground. Not only do you lose corn that way, but it sprouts, and becomes a weed that needs to be eliminated the following season.

Instead of hauling the corn to a local elevator, it's probably hauled to a regional grain terminal, because railroads don't want to deal with less than 100 cars of grain at a time.

Farmers can accept the cash price for the corn, or they can store it and sell it later. The elevator pays a lower price than CBOT (Chicago Board of Trade) quotes, because they need to handle the grain and pay freight. Fifty years ago, the elevators almost universally figured on 5 cents per bushel margin - two cents in, two cents out, one cent profit - plus freight in setting their prices. Some farmers have semis, figuring that they can make more money delivering to a more distant terminal that pays more.

Farmers are docked for foreign content - dirt, weed seed, etc., in their grain. If there is mold or mildew in the crop, the farmer may be docked severely, or the corn may be outright refused. Farmers delivering too-wet corn are charged for shrinkage and for drying costs. If it's a little drier than necessary, though, there's no premium. To a certain degree, the terminal will simply mix too-wet and too-dry corn to come closer to the optimal moisture content. The moisture migrates from the wetter corn to the dry corn, saving the terminal the expense of actually drying it, and allowing them to sell more water to their customers. The farmer can get docked or receive a premium for test weight, but there's no premium for corn that has been grown in rich soil and is highly nutritious, as opposed to corn that has been grown in poorer soil with the aid of generous applications of ammonia.

If a farmer chooses to delay the sale of his corn, he pays a storage each month, which is deducted from his check when he ends up selling his corn. If a farmer raises corn on someone else's land, the corn is usually split 50/50 with the landowner, and the elevator treats it as two loads of corn instead of one.

Farmers can sell their corn even before it's raised. Having a guaranteed price reduces some risks to the farmer, but if the weather is lousy, everybody's crop may fail. Prices may skyrocket, and he may need to buy back the crop he sold at a much higher price than he sold for.

The government has, at various times, offered price support programs. The farmer has to jump through a lot of hoops, such as engaging in conservation programs. Corn may be stored in bonded storage, with the government loaning the farmer money on the crop. If the price remains low, the farmer has the option of forfeiting his crop instead of paying the loan off. If the price remains high, the farmer sells the crop and receives the difference between the sale price and the loan. (No, you can't sell the corn, and take the money and run. The bureaucrats running USDA aren't all that bright, but they aren't *that* dumb.)

What do farmers think of the farm programs? Well in 1963, farmers were asked to vote for or against two separate farm programs. They voted *both* down. Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman said, "Never again", and by gosh, the USDA has kept its word. Never again were the farmers allowed to say "Go away and leave us alone."  The USDA pretty much does what it wants to - and there aren't enough farmers in this country to amount to a political force.

The subsidies for farmers aren't really subsidies. The Agricultural Stabilization Service, as it was originally named, later joined with a conservation program so that that they could change the acronym to ASCS (Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service) is there to keep prices stable, not to keep them high. It doesn't benefit farmers nearly as much as it benefits big companies like Kellogg's, ADM, Cargill, and Quaker. Of course, the big companies all have lots of lobbyists.

Many farmers decline to sell their corn by the bushel. This isn't new, of course; the whiskey rebellion happened because farmers realized that it was cheaper to ship corn in the form of whiskey. These days, they ship their corn on the hoof, by raising swine. When corn prices are high, and pork is low, they sell their corn by the bushel, and when corn prices are low and pork is high, they buy a lot of extra corn to feed their expanded herds.

Pork works fairly well for this, because it's only six months from farrowing to slaughter. Swine are clean, intelligent, and most farmers LIKE swine. They are dangerous, though. Every year, farmers fall down in the pens. Swine are omnivores, just like humans, and they don't often get meat, so having a nice meal of farmer is a treat for them. It's not exactly cannibalism, because the pigs aren't eating each other....

Answer 3

I am not sure what exactly you are asking. I am sure you know how things grow, plant seeds and wait, pray for rain. The marketing is different. The farmers take the grain to the elevators and it is weighed. When they sell it depends on the markets. I live in corn country  central IL and I know a lot of farmers. Some get paid not to plant to corn if there is a lot in storage and prices might be low.