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CORN!
Ron Meyer, Area
Extension Agent - Golden Plains Area
Date: 3/21/2011
Questions?
Contact Me
Steve Scott, Chairman,
Colorado Corn Administrative Committee
Its cultivation is thousands of
years old. Corn has been planted in this country since before the first
Pilgrims landed. It can be harvested for food, fiber, feed, and even fuel. As a
result, Corn is one of the most versatile crops currently grown in the United
States. Driven by technology, genetics, and innovation, American farmers today
produce more than 13 billion bushels per season.
So what is corn used
for? Currently, there are more than 4,200 uses for the crop. Ranging from
aspirin to alcohol, from dyes and inks to disposable diapers, from sausages to
surgical dressings, from industrial chemicals to industrial sweeteners. Corn is
even used in medicines such as antibiotics. And speaking of medical uses,
research is continuing regarding employing technological advances to enable
corn plants to produce insulin.
One bushel of corn usually weighs 56
pounds. One bushel of corn can produce: 31.5 lbs. of starch, or 33 pounds of
sweetener, or 2.8 gallons of fuel, or 22.4 lbs of polymer, or 17.5 lbs of
distillers dried grains (livestock feed), or 1.5 lbs of corn oil.
In the
last 20 years the impact of growing corn is that the amount of land needed to
produce 1 bushel of corn has been reduced by 37%, the energy needed to produce
1 bushel of corn has been reduced by 37%, and the emissions emitted to produce
1 bushel of corn has been reduced by 30%. Further, innovations in the corn
breeding industry have allowed corn farmers to produce more corn using fewer
pesticides than previous generations, in effect producing more corn with a
smaller environmental footprint. Henry Wallace, former Secretary of
Agriculture, states, “United States Farmers in the Corn Belt have
developed the most productive agricultural civilization the world has ever
seen.” In 2009, corn farmers produced 461% more corn than in 1939, on 2%
fewer acres. Clearly, with less than 2% of the U.S. population feeding the
other 98%, American farmers are doing good things.
Research with corn
has indicated the crop may be able to replace some oil-based fuels. Researchers
have discovered new ways to convert corn into bioplastics and fabrics, products
where petroleum typically dominates. In fact, it is becoming more common to
find corn-based plastics in utensils, gift cards, safety seals, snack chip
bags, water bottles, and more. Corn bio-materials are being spun into other
products such as fabrics, replacing nylon and polyester made from petroleum.
Further, corn based fibers are spun into carpets, keeping them not only soft
but stain resistant. Furthermore, imagination and ingenuity are continuing to
find new products from this crop.
Corn farmers are currently growing
both fuel and feed from the same bushel. When a bushel of corn is used to
produce ethanol for fuel, a by-product is produced called distillers grain.
Distillers grain is a high quality feed that livestock producers feed to
animals. Ethanol plants use the corn kernel’s starch, the rest of the
kernel is used as livestock feed. No waste products. In addition, according to
USDA, one acre of corn removes 8 tons of CO2 from the air per season. As this
plant is “inhaling” CO2, it is “exhaling” O2 and one corn
acre produces enough to supply oxygen for 1 year to 131 people. Last year,
American farmers planted 88 million acres of corn.
Americans continue to
spend a smaller percentage of their income on food than almost any other
nation. In 1979, Americans spent 14% of their personal consumptive expenditures
(PCE) on food. In 1989, Americans used a little under 10 percent of their total
PCE on food at home--the lowest share in the world.
Most of that food
dollar spent does not end up on the farm. For example, a standard box of corn
flakes contains approximately 10 ounces of corn, or about 1/90th of a bushel.
When corn is priced at $5 per bushel, that’s only about a nickel’s
worth of corn.
Corn is a more significant ingredient for meat, dairy and
egg production. Still, corn represents a relatively small share of these
products in terms of retail price. It takes about 3.6 pounds of corn to produce
one pound of pork (live weight), about 32.1 cents worth of corn when corn is $5
per bushel.
Labor costs account for about 38 cents of every dollar a
consumer spends on food. Packaging, transportation, energy, advertising and
profits account for 24 cents of the food dollar—with energy costs having
an even greater impact as oil prices rise. According to the Federal Reserve
Bank of Kansas City, marketing costs (the difference between the farm value and
consumer spending for food at grocery stores and restaurants) have risen from
67 percent in the 1980s to 80 percent today. By contrast, agricultural
productivity has increased 200 percent from 1948 to 1994, with no increase in
overall inputs.
Continued advances in agriculture and in particular corn
production will enable our farmers to continue to deliver a dependable and
affordable product. While we Americans spend only about 10% of our disposable
income on food, Sudan residents spend nearly 63% of their PCE on
food.
Sources:
BNET – Business Publications
National Corn
Growers Association – 2011 World of Corn
Corn Farmers Coalition –
Corn Fact Book
www.worldofcorn.com