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2016 Logan County Fall Farm Outlook Magazine
Lincoln Daily News
Oct. 27, 2016
7
A
Google search on “The Sustainability
of Corn” will return numerous articles
discussing how corn requires a great deal of
fertilizer and a great deal of water, thereby
making it a non-self-sustaining crop to grow,
unlike soybeans.
But this is not the type of “sustainability” that
interests us most at this time in the history of
agriculture. We can fertilize and supply all the
nutrients that corn requires at the time that those
nutrients are needed. We can irrigate and supply
all the water corn needs when rainfall fails to
provide adequate groundwater. We can provide
everything for corn needed to grow a fantastic
crop. But the sustainability we should be
discussing is not whether corn can grow itself but
whether “King Corn” can sustain our farms, our
families, our communities and our way of life.
With today’s low corn prices, every farmer is
feeling the pinch, along with seed companies,
fertilizer companies, implement dealers, insurance
companies and every other business that provides
inputs for the farm. Rural communities are in
decline because of low corn prices. Because of
the steep drop in prices since 2012, all the inputs
have also dropped in price to stay in the game.
But these drops, including fuel prices, have not
been enough in most cases to provide sustainable
profitability on the farm.
Lincoln Daily News did a five year study from
2011 through 2015 of the total yield and value
of the U.S. corn crop. The study shows a
significant decrease in the total value of the corn
crop. In 2011 the total U.S corn crop brought
approximately $78.5 billion dollars. In 2012 -
$74.6 B; in 2013 - $62.7 B; in 2014 - $52.6 B.
And in 2015, the total corn crop brought $47.9
billion, a drop of $26.7 billion dollars in just five
years. That means there are $26.7 billion fewer
dollars in the entire ag industry, and $26.7 billion
fewer dollars on the family farm.
A correlating Lincoln Daily News five year study
of the consumer side of corn reveals why the
Sustaining the farm
By
Jim Youngquist
Continued ►