How well did corn really do this year?

Question

is it like the farmers said?

Answer 1

we are seeing some of the highest yields I can ever remember seeing here around me and on my farm.  We are also seeing pretty good prices for corn, beans, and especially wheat.

Answer 2

Corn did so well on the market this year, it's driving HUNDREDS of small farmers out of business.  I am a small farmer and raise meat goats, and meat rabbits.  Last year a good, productive, commercial  doe (female goat) went for $125.  

This year you are lucky to find someone to buy them for $35, and on top of that the price of hay has more than doubled.  Last year alfalfa could be purchased for$75-$80 per ton.  This year it is $125-$200 per ton, and winter has not yet hit (when the prices really go up!).

So now your wondering what the price of goats and alfalfa has to do with the price of corn, right?

I'll tell you how the circle works.

First environmentalist spaz out about global warming.

The President signs in Bills to fund the study, production, and manufacturing of different biofuels.

Driven by mega business companies, like Monsanto, and gains to be had by investors on Wall Street, corn is of course pushed as the product that is going to save us all, and make fuel for our cars.

Corn of course only produces 1/3 of a gallon of fuel for every gallon used to produce it, ON IT'S BEST DAYS.  Quiet often it actually used MORE fuel to produce than it makes!  However with Government subsidies, it's still worth it to grow.

So mega agra business men (some people call them farmers, but when you make millions of dollars, via the Government, I personally no longer classify you as a farmer) go grazy planting as much corn as possible.  

I even saw field after field of corn, where I live!  I live in Idaho, in the heart of potato country.  In all the years I've lived here, there had been only ONE field of it before.  It was grown by a man with a cattle feed lot.  Now corn is darn well growing everywhere, in a climate that is not at all suited for corn production.  It also means farmers are having to buy equipment to harvest it, or hire that done in my neck of the woods.  THAT is how insane corn prices of become.

Anyway, back to the circle of why corn is driving small farmers out of business.  So instead of growing crops they normally would, like alfalfa, and other crops, all the agra businessmen are growing is corn.

Couple the less hay grown and planted, with droughts, and the increased need for hay, and you have a serrious hay shortage.  

Since people cannot afford to feed their livestock over the winter, the market is glutted with goats, sheep, cattle, horses, llamas, ect.  I personally have been called by three different people DESPERATE to sell their goats, and hoping I'd buy herds of 200, 300, and 800 respectively.

It's a buyers market for horses right now.  I'm seeing more and more adds for free horses being advertised in the local paper.  Some of them are point blank, and honest, "FREE Wonderful, well trained horse, cannot afford to feed over the winter, desperate, please call....."

The price of corn is also going to drive up the price of all meats at the grocery store.  Chickens, pigs, and cattle are of course all fed corn as they are raised for butcher.  The price of milk, and other dairy products is going to skyrocket.

So yup, corn did great.  Unfortunatly, it's going to affect the pocketbook of almost everyone, and worse yet, drive hundreds, if not thousands more small farmers out of business.

~Garnet

Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Answer 3

The USDA estimates the 2007 U.S. corn crop at 13.308 billion bushels, 254 million (26.3 percent) larger than the 2006 crop. The larger crop forecast reflects the expectation of a U.S. average yield of 155.8 bushels, 6.7 bushels above the 2006 average, but 4.6 bushels below the record yield of 2004.

U.S. farmers planted 92.9 million acres of corn in 2007.

http://www.ethanolmarket.com/PressReleas...

Answer 4

bohemian... is RIGHT !! Why all the thumbs down?? True farmers/ ranchers know this to be FACT! (everything she said)

Answer 5

Corn did real well here in yield and price.  I'm from corn and soybean country.  We have a small farm and have no corn, but I don't begrudge corn farmers for finely making a little profit for a change.  Corn was up about 20% in average this year, but very little new land goes into corn production.  The soybeans were down about 20%, that accounts for most of the increase in corn.   If people are taking good potato ground and putting it into corn that is not suited for the area, they probably will go broke.  We also have a serious shortage of hay in our area, but it's due to the drought and not increased corn acreage. It will all even out in time.

Answer 6

The state I'm from produced a record amount of corn, but it was average yeild per acre.

Answer 7

corn did so well that in some states the price went up so the farmer that was selling would get more money than he usually would for an average year. But in my state of wisconsin prices went down due to the over flowing of un-needed corn. Basically about a normal weeks worth of corn would last a family of 3 for about 2-3 weeks.

Answer 8

It had its ups and downs.  Some of our fields had 80 bushels and acre and some had 200.  It depended on whether it was in the sand or clay.  We started out dry and then when the rain hit it was all good.  We got 8 bucks a bushel for corn this year the best ever.  It mostly depends on where you live. I live in warsaw Indiana. We have about 900 acres and are doing great. hope i helped

Answer 9

i like corn i think