Revenue Maximizer aligns Koch and farmers in sharing the risks and rewards of corn production.
Oct. 8: For a second month running, the Agriculture Department cut its forecast for US corn production.
Corn production, the current flavor of the week for Internet fear-mongering, has more than tripled since 1970.
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According to some estimates, U.S. corn production could touch record levels this year.
Corn and sugar, for example, are used extensively in biofuels - in the US, 40% of all corn production goes into making ethanol.
The U.S. now turns over 40% of corn production into biofuels.
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This may not lead to large expansion of corn production, but it may mean that corn can be grown in areas that are drier, possibly as a consequence of climate change.
America's ethanol subsidy, which has led to a huge rise in production, rocketing maize prices and consequent rioting in Mexico, is the sharpest example of why government should not pick winners: once the fertiliser and fuel used in corn production are taken into account, ethanol is probably not much greener than petrol.
Still, the group this week joined other animal producers in calling for a reduction in corn ethanol production mandates, saying pricing and availability of corn for feed is threatened by the combination of a small corn crop this year and the government mandate, which will use about four of every 10 bushels of corn.
Certainly, the volume from demo and even commercial-scale advanced biofuels facilities is tiny when compared to petrofuels and much less than corn ethanol production.
Last year alone, the Standard diverted 40 percent of all U.S. corn towards ethanol production.
Brazil, another large ethanol producer, uses sugar instead of corn for ethanol production.
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Drought now covers all or virtually all of the corn and soyabean production areas in Illinois, Nebraska, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee.
Indeed, corn and rice production have more than tripled since 1970.
FORBES: Fortified By Global Warming, Crop Production Keeps Breaking Records
Scouts trudged into fields of both corn and soybean along a direct westerly route across the Midwest region that accounts for about 75 percent of U.S. corn and soy production.
The fact that corn-ethanol production has continued to grow, despite the failure of a number of firms in late 2008 and early 2009, points to the efficacy of the various protections and subsidies it enjoys (falling maize prices helped too), though it says nothing about their efficiency or wisdom.
In April, Texas Governor Rick Perry asked the EPA to reduce the total number of gallons of ethanol required to be blended into gasoline sold in the United States until 2010, arguing that biofuels production had increased the price of grain by diverting a huge share of the nation's corn harvest to ethanol production.
From 2000 to 2010, U.S. corn-based ethanol production increased from 1.6 to 13.2 billion gallons per year.
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He wanted us to plant corn everywhere and start production of chemical fertilizers.
Global production of corn, wheat and rice have all more than doubled since 1970 as global warming occurred.
FORBES: Fortified By Global Warming, Crop Production Keeps Breaking Records
It will spark new ethanol production from corn and other crops.
While he admits that the worsening Midwest drought will cause a sharp hike in crop prices, he maintains there is yet no need to seek a reduction in corn-based ethanol production.
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An immutable fact is now clear for all to see: Food prices track oil prices, regardless of how much corn is used for ethanol production.
Corn, wheat and rice production are all experiencing long-term upward trends.
FORBES: Fortified By Global Warming, Crop Production Keeps Breaking Records
The ethanol industry recently produced roughly 35 million metric tons of DDG a year, though the current Midwest drought is driving up corn prices and cutting ethanol production.
Roughly 40% of the U.S corn crop was diverted to the production of ethanol for gasoline in 2010, up from 20% in 2006.
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Not only is the Brazilian real weakening, the long term commodity trend in the U.S. is for higher corn prices on account of ethanol production.
Also, the improvement in corn productivity led to per acre production of 91 bushels in 1980 to climb to almost 165 bushels per acre in 2009.
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Because corn is increasingly used for ethanol production, it has decoupled from historical livestock cycles and changed the margin relationship between feed costs and the sale of livestock products.
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