OF: Can corn or soybeans be the crop of the future

Please email me.

Thanks

Justin

Dug

Many stations are selling E-85, could fill a tank about every 50 miles around the southern part of Minnesota. It is 85% ethanol, 15% gasoline, and costs about 10-15 cents a gallon less than regular.

If we can get all that to work in our harsh climate, it should work anywhere. :)

We have a large number of farmer-owned ethanol plants, so much so that the rail roads have noticed the decrease in traffic. We are using the corn internally, not having to ship it out.

Also, it has made a big market for DDGS, which is the high - protien 'waste' left from distilling. Makes a great suppliment for cattle/ dairy. It even gets exported to other coutries as feed.

As the oil is used from soybeans to make biodiesel, there will be a lot of protien suppliments, perhaps a shortage of oils. The cash flow of these components and crops may change.

Corn can also produce oil, tho of course beans are a lot better.

Beets & potatoes can make a lot of sugar, which is what ethanol is. However, they just don't fit the big picture as well for long term storage, adaptability to different soils/ climates, and they are 'fussy' crops, with lots of high-dollar inputs to grow.

While their may be an increase in those crops, it won't take over corn....

--->Paul

Corn & soybeans are the crops of the present, so Idon't know that you can call them the crop of the future? They will continue to be the important ones for quite some time to come. But perhaps something else will emerge that will take it's place as a major crop.

Soybeans are currently declining a bit, as certain pests and a yield level has hit them. Corn on the other hand seems to be growing in strength.

No one can email you as long as you keep your email blocked. Besides, discussion forums are more about all of us learning & talking about an issue, not just private emails to one person.

Come on back and discuss with us. :) your question is so broad, it is difficult to know what kind of info you really want.

--->Paul

What are your opinions on future "money making crops"?

or

Your opinion on crops that will continue to be the crop to plant or the crop to turn to?

"thinking outside the box helps" teachers say to do that more

You have to look at the end use of anything to determine demand (I am a dedicated believer in reverse engineering). We live in a western post-modern economy. Population growth is flat (and declining in some western economies). Expanded production must have a market. Our greatest need is renewable fuels. We have more than enough to eat (hence our societal weight problem). Someone else will have to eat what we produce or we have to export it. To export it, it has to either suplant someone elses exports (with higher quality or lower prices) or it has to go to feed calorie deficient parts of the world (and they dont have enough money to buy what we produce. That brings us back to domestic markets and the things we a deficient in. Once again, energy for fuel tops the list.

I think corn, beans, wheat will be the money crops for some time to come. Corn is king, and will remain so. We are learning how to better process it into what we need - corn siryp sugar, ethanol, DDGS, and so on, broken down into components that industry & food giants use. This used to be the domain of soybeans, but in the last 25 years they have learned to process corn into components as well. Corn yields & dependability continue to go up, up, up. We have gotten a handle on pest control in corn. For now.

For all that, corn is the crop of the present & the future.

Soybeans are faultering, they are having pest pressure from aphids & now the rust issue - already sudden death syndrom, iron chlyrosis (did I ever mention I can't spell?) and other problems that haven't been well addressed. They already have hit a brick wall on yield, seems breeders have gotten into adding GMO stuff to them rather than continuing to enhance yield. Added all together and soybeans have had their high point. If no breakthroughs on how they are bred or used, they are as good as they get and will receed some. I will say specifically they are _not_ the crop of the future, as your question implies. Soybeans will be a filler crop to rotate with other things.

Wheat feeds people, but it doesn't feed livestock. They have pest problems as well. Wheat will be king on the dry areas where corn doesn't grow. But it will be second to corn at least.

New crops? Agriculture in the USA is breaking into 2 groups - big efficient, huge, & cheap (corn, beans, wheat).

Or, small nitche farming, organic or a specialty crop that fills a local need. Or a farmers market approach, where you charge more for your product but spend as much time cultivating customers as you do cultivating your crop, and sell yourself as well as the product for a premium.

I believe that is agriculture of the future, but not one specific crop will emerge from that.

Corn is king. Should be for some time to come.

--->Paul

Thanks

Don't understand why you asked people to email you, but you have never, ever, openned up your email for access....

Good luck with the paper.

--->Paul

I have recieved email confirmation before from ytmag.

Dont know why it doesn't work for someone else.