Why are farmers supposed to be producting more soybeans and wheat? Shouldn't they be producing corn for fuel?

Question

On CNN the USDA said that farmers are going to be producing more soybeans and wheat; corn production is going to be downsized! Why would they do this whenever fuel prices are so high? I figured this year would be a record high for corn, because the whole plant, including the stalk, is used for ethonol production...I'm confused!

Answer 1

because the ethanol ,the flower and  all corn producing ,double in price, and the farmers now are producing moor farm goods, they must be stop getting subsidize from the government. or they must producing triple the amount of corn and soybeans, to lower the prices down.the price of gas is going to pout the trucking entrusting out of business. Oslo the ear lines  double the fare and they going to loose the business

Answer 2

Using corn and wheat to make fuel  is an OK idea.But there are 2 drawbacks to this use.

    1.We eat corn & wheat so using it for fuel drives up the cost to us for food.

     2.It takes quite a bit of energy to make fuel from either plant.

  Using soybeans is a much better choice.I mean if you are going to use a food crop at all.While soybean go into many things that ultimately wind up on our plates.We dont use it the same way as the others.

  Personally I believe that if we are going to make fuel from plants it should be one that is not used at all in food.I.e. switchgrass.

Answer 3

I'm a small farmer, on a permaculture farm.  I've lived in the middle of BIG agriculture most of my life (where farmers messure farms by the mile, not the acre).

Right now the price of ALL grain comodities, and most other food products is going up.

Hops (to make beer) have increased 10 fold since last year.

Rice has gone up 600% for some of the premium fragrant rices.

Wheat, soybeans, corn, ect have all vastly increased in price.  A farmer just down the road from me sold his wheat a few weeks ago for $25 a bushel.  In 2006, he was getting $3.47 a bushel.

Starting in 2006, it was the first time since the advent of modern agriculture, that enough wheat to meet world demand was NOT grown.  Vast areas of American farm land have been plowed up, and subdivisions have taken over once fertile farm ground.  The average American farmer is over 58 years old, and in poor health....many of them are retiring.  

China and India have booming economies.  Witht heir new found wealth, they are buying food.  Enough wheat to meet the new demand is not being grown.  This drives the price of food commodities sky high.

Same thing that is happening with wheat is happening with soybeans.

Farmers should NOT be planting corn for fuel production!  With corn, if the farmer is very lucky, and everything is just right, they produce 1.3 gallons of fuel from the corn, for every gallon of fuel they use to grow it.  It simply does not make financial sence to produce a crop for fuel that only has .3 gallons of fuel return on it's best days, when you could be producing actual food crops instead.  The worst thing is corn is often grown at a LOSS!  Meaning it took more fuel to grow it, and process it, than fuel it produced!

The price of alfalfa hay also doubled and in some cases trippled last year.  With the price of hay and grains being so high, it means that all of our meat, egg, milk, cheese, ice cream, butter, and other dairy products are also rapidly rising in price.

Some people assume that farmers are making money hand over fist in these times.  Some are making a good wage for the first time in 30 years.  Those farmers are replacing tractors and other equipment that is 20 or 30 years old.  Other farmers who cannot afford to put their grain in silos and sit on it, until the price is at it's peak, are not making any more money than they have in years past.

The enormous increase in fuel prices, along with the increased prices for tractor parts, seed, and fertilizer, are sucking up any possible profits they might have made.  Those farmers (and there are many of them) are no better off than when the price of grains was low.

The price of food is not going to get better in the near future.  China and India are going to keep the price of our foods sky high.  

Want to bring the price down?  But Made In America products, and buy your foods from your local small farmers.  Sometimes a global economy is not all it's cracked up to be.

~Garnet

Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Answer 4

because soybeans and wheat are at an all time high so everybody is farming them the corn is not going to run out