Ethanol From Corn

Agriculture: Ethanol to blame for corn market volatility?

After Congress passed the Energy Independence and Security Act in 2007, markets are struggling to meet both the law's renewable fuels standard and grain demands from the livestock, food and export sectors.

About 27 percent of the nation's corn crop this year must be devoted to ethanol to meet the federal mandate, leaving other corn producers to compete for the remaining 73 percent.

Purdue agricultural economist Wally Tyner said the renewable fuels standard requires 15 billion gallons of ethanol be consumed per year by 2015, regardless of the price of corn and regardless of the price of crude oil. Corn could be $2 per bushel or $10 per bushel, crude could be $50 per barrel or $100 per barrel, and that 15 billion gallons has to be there. That means ethanol production is unresponsive to price.

This inflexibility has led to market volatility and wild swings in corn prices, which have topped $7 per bushel in recent months. The federal subsidy for ethanol is 45 cents per gallon. An extraordinarily wet spring across much of the Corn Belt delayed planting and could lower crop yields this fall.

Grain stocks are at a dangerously low level, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture projecting about a three-week supply of U.S. corn by the end of August. A five-week supply is considered adequate. There also is little new land to grow corn. Shifting from one crop to another is hard to do when the prices of all commodities are high.

Most of the soybean stands look great across the county, but a few places appear to have some issues. Poor stands can be caused by a number of different stresses including diseases, poor quality seed, insects, slugs and poor drainage. The primary concerns right now are seedling pathogens. If you have seedlings in the process of dying, we would be happy to look at them.

Pack the seedlings in a plastic bag, but do not add a paper towel, and ship to: Anne Dorrance, Department of Plant Pathology, OARDC, 1680 Madison Ave., Wooster, OH 44691. Label the bag with contact information, variety and seed treatment if known.

Research numbers indicate wheat scab levels generally are lower this year. However, we do expect to see it to some extent at harvest time.

To minimize discounts or prevent dockage, harvest grain from scabby fields separately from more healthy fields, and turn up the combine fan to blow out scabby, lightweight grain. When the grain is small, too high a fan speed might result in healthy grain being removed along with scabby grain, and as a result, less grain being harvested.

Nebraska Corn Kernels: A great time: Ethanol Night at the Races at ...

“It was great to have an opportunity to tell fans about the ethanol industry. Racing fans know the value of having a high performance fuel, and that is exactly what ethanol is. Fans were told of the many benefits of ethanol, including the fact that it is made right here in Nebraska by their friends and neighbors,” said Mat Habrock, field services director of the Nebraska Corn Growers Association .

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Energy: Ethanol: The Production and Use of Biofuels, Biodiesel, and Ethanol, Agriculture-Based Renewable Energy Production Including Corn and Sugar, The Ethanol "Blend Wall", Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS and RFS2), Cellulosic Biofuels, 2007 Energy Bill