Opinion: Land wisdom needed

Ethanol Producer Magazine
By Susanne Retka Schill November 07, 2011

The U.S. trade system has its faults, but it does serve to balance supply and demand. Short term hiccups are quickly pulled back into line as all the market players do their thing.

The monthly supply/demand report is due this week, and at least one pendant says the trade is bracing itself for another surprise. It’s been one of those years, with the USDA narrowing in its projections as the weather kept prognosticators on their toes. Just how badly did the late spring and hot summer impact the crop? Certainly, some areas were badly affected, but will that impact be localized or more broad spread? If the heart of the Corn Belt still has a decent crop, that blunts the problems in other regions.

I did read an interesting story that suggested farmers were seeing the poorest yields from corn-on-corn plantings. With the extra inputs required for corn-on-corn, that’s not good, and will no doubt prompt farmers to keep corn in rotation with beans, and thus, keep the balance in crop acres. That balance appears to be holding steady, although all crop prices have risen to keep in alignment with corn.

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