this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2024
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With how heavily subsidised corn is in the US it would an achievement to fail at turning a profit.
AG 101 "How to lose money on corn"
Rent more land than you own.
Buy the cheapest seed you can find to "save money"
Grow the corn non-irrigated
Use custom operators to fertilize, plant, spray, and harvest but minimize what you put down to "save money".
Gamble the entire year on the commodities market selling your crop.
Even with subsidies this is a recipe for losing money. These "farmers" tend to consistently lose money until they eventually go under after all the equity in the land they own is gone.
It's so common that entire generations have grown corn at a loss. Why, entire states built their economies on the losses they found from corn. It's such an unprofitable crop that only half of the United States grows it, and it's a pretty poor country.
You are looking at survivorship bias. Look at the number of farms statistics. It's been steadily declining for a very long time. Every year thousands of farms go bankrupt or sell out mostly following the above steps. Because of the large amount of equity in the land value and the relatively small net return or loss it takes a long time for them to go bankrupt. On average around 15-20 years of poor management.
Now the ones that survive follow AG 102 "How to make money growing corn."
Own the land outright without any mortgage.
Do research plots to evaluate corn varieties and purchase the seed with the highest potential net return. Do not be loyal to any brand/supplier.
Invest in irrigation, even in areas that usually get enough rainfall. Running a pivot 1-2 times at the right time can equal 100+ bu higher yield.
Purchase and maintain your own equipment. Replace equipment on the good years, repair it on the bad one.
Open bid on your inputs. Offer no loyalty to any one supplier, do your own application when possible. Buy generics and cheaper equivalent inputs when possible.
Manage your risk when selling. Contract the bulk of your sales early to guarantee a return ad cover your costs.
Do not get on the debt cycle of paying for inputs by taking short term loans. Maintain a healthy reserve from good years to cover the bad ones
My dude, what lemmies are you subbed to? I want to discuss these things somewhere, can't find anything reasonable.
I keep hearing this, but someone has to be making money on corn or there wouldn't be corn. My guess is that the margin is so thin that the only way to put any appreciable amount of money away to get you through a market dip is to do tremendous volume, which would cause the industry to tend to push out small farmers, which kicks off a feedback loop because the big conglomerates are even bigger and can take even longer bad times, so they can snap up even more failed small farmers, etc etc ad nauseaum.
......I should start growing corn
First you need a lot of land and some heavy farm equipment. Then a contract with Monsanto.....
You can grow corn without Roundup. You can even sell it for more money as "organic corn".
Not immediately, though. To make the conversion, a farmer must grow organic corn but without the premium price for seven years. All the while, thorough documentation & being open to inspection.
After 7 years, you can grow organic corn...and get the premium prices associated with growing organic corn.
It's a 3 year conversion in the U.S.. The easiest way to convert it is to plant alfalfa. Then when it comes out of hay it's certified organic.
Idk about your alfalfa/hay situation, but IIRC for corn it is 7 whole years. This is so virtually all of the inorganic pesticides, insecticides, fertilizers, and all the other "stuff" that isn't organic works its way out of the soil. We just had a local farmer become organic certified for corn a couple years ago; it was a big deal.
Personally I think in the interim, a farmer could sell his "not quite organic certified" corn crop to a local cattle producer for feed. 😏 Charge more than GMO corn, but not as much as organic. Everybody wins, everybody's happy. There is a base practical reason for this: at least cows prefer organic & non-GMO corn. It tastes better to them, hell, it's probably marginally better for them. They happily eat more, which fattens them up, making for a better end product beef.
https://www.ams.usda.gov/services/organic-certification/transitioning-to-organic
Doesn't matter what crop it is. Organic certification is 3 years.
Huh, son of a bitch. Alright, then! Thanks for the info. 👍🏻
Wild! Per opinions of farmers you’ve heard?
I have a farmer that raises (mostly!) grass-fed Angus cows; he feeds them out for a little less than a year & sends them to slaughter "when they're right". Produces very tender, good beef & I buy 1/4 cow.
....anyway. This is what he said, he's seen things where GMO & non-GMO corn are poured into different troughs & the cows clearly want the non-GMO. They figure out they're not the same & the non-GMO is all they want to eat. Much like a cat with different cat foods, etc.
It makes a hell of a lot of sense; the GMO corn plant is made to push heavy yield. Be resistant to pests & all kinds of disease. Bigger kernels. Then on top of the GMO qualities, maybe a little of what's been sprayed onto the plants gets into the kernel. It's probably not super tasty when compared to just...regular-ass corn with not as potent chemical sprays.
Palatability is not related to the GMO. It's genetics type that are used in the production.
Organically produced seed historically has been straight dent corn (older genetics in the public domain). These are softer kernals that are easier for he animals to chew. The don't need to be ground as fine.
GMO hybrids are mostly dent x flint crosses. These have a harder shell around the outside of the kernals. It needs to be ground up finer for the animals to digest it.
This is changing recently as Bayer and Corteva are licensing out their dent x flint varieties to the organic companies.
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing that. Would be great to see that tested under controlled conditions.
Guys, your standards are too low. Your situation with environmentally damaging and ecological is the same as ours with ecological and biological.
I think they're more talking about seed supply than herbicides. But it's usually a combo deal depending on what you're doing.
You can sell organic for about 5-10% more, but your yield is typically 15-20% less than non organic, and it's more labour intensive.
Organic growing is really a niche subsector of agriculture which doesn't really thrive at a larger scale, but it's a decent option for people with smaller plots of land.
Right, but you don't need a contract with Monsanto to get seeds if you're not going to use chemicals. Monsanto holds the patent for Roundup resistant plants, which is why they can completely control all of the seeds. If you're not using chemicals or that GMO variant, then you don't need Monsanto at all.
They sell a lot more than just their round up ready seeds, they also have a lot of GMO for things like drought tolerance and some that can release a pesticide like protein. They also own/supply a lot of the organic/heirloom subsidiaries that people believe to be competition.
It's actually pretty hard to avoid using a product from Monsanto, there's actually websites that have list you can cross reference to avoid it if possible.
Monsanto doesn't exist anymore. It was purchased by Bayer in an all cash deal
Bayer of course is worse
TIL. Thanks for sharing
Np, really the only reason I know about it is because the side of my family that farms constantly talks about it.
There's just a little bit of fraud in the organic market.
I mean one guy fraudulently sold 7% of the corn and 8% of soybeans. I am sure nobody else is doing the same.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndia/pr/field-schemes-fraud-results-over-decade-federal-prison-leader-largest-organic-fraud
We use it for basically everything from food and beverage sweetener to car fuel.
also it goes in butts sometimes.
Way too much of it in food.
While I don't doubt that statement, this location in Interstellar was filmed in Alberta, Canada.
Maybe he got the subsidies too.