Flooding Ruins Crops In Midwest

Discussion in 'Weather & Natural Disasters' started by Bob Kirk, Jun 17, 2019.

  1. Bob Kirk

    Bob Kirk Veteran Member
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    Illinois farmers give up on planting after floods, throw party instead

    A small portion of the article.

    DEER GROVE, Ill. (Reuters) - The Happy Spot was a little depressed.
    Dozens of corn farmers and those who sell them seed, chemicals and equipment gathered on Thursday at the restaurant in Deer Grove, Illinois, after heavy rains caused unprecedented delays in planting this year and contributed to record floods across the central United States.

    The storms have left millions of acres unseeded in the $51 billion U.S. corn market and put crops that were planted late at a greater risk for damage from severe weather during the growing season. Together, the problems heap more pain on a farm sector that has suffered from years of low crop prices and a U.S.-China trade war that is slowing agricultural exports.

    Forecasts for even more rain sent U.S. corn futures to a five-year high on Friday, though fewer farmers will benefit from soaring prices because of the planting disruptions.
    James McCune, a farmer from Mineral, Illinois, was unable to plant 85% of his intended corn acres and wanted to commiserate with his fellow farmers by hosting the "Prevent Plant Party" at The Happy Spot. He invited them to swap stories while tucking in to fried chicken and a keg of beer in Deer Grove, a village of about 50 people located 120 miles (193 km) west of Chicago.
    "Everybody's so down in the dumps," McCune said.

    McCune returned his unused corn seed to a local dealer for Pioneer, a part of Corteva Inc, after planting just 900 acres of corn out of the 6,000 acres he intended to put in the ground.
    Bureau County, Illinois, where McCune lives, has the fourth-highest risk of all U.S. counties for corn acres to go unplanted this year because of rains, behind three counties in Nebraska, according to Gro Intelligence.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/illinois-farmers-planting-floods-throw-132310742.html



    I'd like to note that prices have suffered for YEARS & that export has slowed NOT stopped. <-- shouting just using caps to emphasize words not emphasized in the article.

    Common sense tells me meat prices will increase along with food prices related to corn used in so many food products. I expect this will hit later this year but just in time to blame Pres. Trump for rising food prices.
     
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  2. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    Yes, Trump and Global Warming will get the blame, as usual.
     
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  3. Shirley Martin

    Shirley Martin Supreme Member
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    It's not too late to plant soybeans and wheat. I wonder if they could plant them there?
     
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  4. Bess Barber

    Bess Barber Veteran Member
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    We might better get a hoe and some seeds and plant our own. I'm not all about being old AND hungry. :)
     
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  5. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    My concern for less corn planted lies with the cost of gasoline......isn't nearly all unleaded sold now containing ethanol, which is corn-produced? The refiners, even though adding alcohol likely costs them very little more, will take advantage of the bad news in order to jack up retail gasoline prices.
    Frank
     
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  6. Peter Renfro

    Peter Renfro Veteran Member
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    Ethanol in our gasoline is nothing but a gift to farmers anyway. It serves no practical purpose, there is not only not a shortage of gasoline, but a glut.
    It is an idiotic idea to use food for a fuel, nothing but a political bone!
     
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  7. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    @Peter Renfro
    I must politely almost disagree with you. Before doing so, I point out my post referred to not the good or bad of alcohol use, but rather shortage of it may impact us all cost-wise.

    Now, if no practical purpose is served through use of ethanol as fuel, especially when the glut of petroleum exists, how about the hypothetical case where petroleum-derived fuel exceeds the cost of alcohol? Would it then still be an "idiotic use" of food for fuel? How about the current use of foodstuffs left-overs to produce biofuel? Idiotic?

    Finally, consider the time-honored use of 100% alcohol in those Indianapolis 500 race cars using the famed Offenhauser engines. Why did they do that?

    Please tell me you did not mean this: "....there is not only not a shortage of gasoline, but a glut.

    Having both a shortage and a glut is like being in two different places at the same time, no?

    Frank
     
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  8. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    Tell it to your congressman. In the name of "reducing emissions," ethanol/gasoline became a thing. Don't blame farmers for selling to the highest bidder.
     
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  9. Shirley Martin

    Shirley Martin Supreme Member
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    See?
     
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  10. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    @Shirley Martin

    See? I see. Time will reveal who else "sees", maybe.......
    Frank
     
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  11. Peter Renfro

    Peter Renfro Veteran Member
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    Put on your glasses and read it again Frank!
    Don't much give a damn whether you disagree respectfully or other wise. however . Ethanol serves no practical purpose except to jack up mid west farmers welfare system.
    OPEC is looking at cutting back production as the price is hovering at just about 70 dollars. Enough to make money but the want a bit more. Domestic fracking producers look to come online at about 85 dollars, so OPEC is walking a fine production schedule.

    Brazil runs it cars on ethanol
    Indy 500 started running its cars on ethanol in a switch from methanol in 2005. Ethanol Promotion Information Council (EPIC) sponsored the change from methanol in an attempt to counteract the bad publicity ethanol blended gasoline's were acquiring with the public. They transitioned from gas to methanol in 1965.

    Ethanol in gas has no practical purpose!
     
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  12. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    We had trouble with our old Ford station wagon starting in the winter, especially in the colder days. After research, I read that it was the ethanol in the gas that caused the problem, and they recommended using regular gasoline without any ethanol in it.
    It cost a lot more, but we tried a tank of it, and , to my amazement (and happiness !) that old car would start right up every day after I stopped using the ethanol gas.
    After that, I put in straight gas every other tank all winter, and even occasionally in the summer, just to keep the vehicle running better.
    Even using a higher octane gas didn’t solve the problem of not starting, but straight gasoline with no ethanol took care of it almost immediately.
     
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  13. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    You can use aviation fuel, if you can get it. It has no ethanol, contains lead, and pollutes more. It is more like the high-octane fuel of old. Environmentalists forced the oil companies to add oxygen to their fuel to reduce emissions, and MTBE was added. It was found to contaminate everything in the environment, and, as often happens, the environmentalists actually caused MORE contamination to the environment, so corrective action had to be taken. Ethanol was used to replace MTBE since methanol was considered too corrosive to the engines and shortened engine life.

    http://www.fuel-testers.com/ethanol_mtbe_vs_non_alcohol_gas.html
     
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  14. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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  15. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    @Yvonne Smith
    How old? If carburetted, not fuel-injected, alcohol presence definitely reduces startability because of it's poorer volatility than gasoline: it vaporizes with more difficulty.
    Frank
     
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