Crusader, the thing that has been missed in the ethanol system since it went "big time" is the value of the by product. When farmers were distilling on the farm every bit of the residual went through livestock. Our problem as a nation is that we have not learned (or more accurately, are not willing to convert our ways) to use DDG in human foods. In the late 70's it was learned that the best thing we could do was to quit selling our corn and wheat to starving nations, and begin GIVING them our DDG. They would receive better nutritional value and we would actually be neutral to slightly better off financially.
The protein level of the corn is 11% and in Dried Distillers Grain (DDG) it is 23%. By replacing some of the corn with DDG you can utilize other products in the feed, and you can lower the soybean meal. By utilizing DDG in our cereals and cooking products we would improve the nutritional value of those products. When we were feeding DDG I made a batch of corn bread replacing half of the corn meal with DDG, and nobody noticed. Based on the nutritional charts the lowered starches made it a better food for us.
When I was growing up and spending time on the farm every farmer two generations beyond me, and my father-in-law also, had diversified farms. They had dairy, swine and poultry. They would run fattening hogs in the cattle lots to clean up all the wasted feed and the undigested grain in the manure. They would sell some milk whole; but much was separated and the remaining whey was fed to the pigs as well, and manure from all over was put back on the land with very little added. Today dairy farmers sell their milk whole and most whey from processing is dumped on land or down the sewer. Recently plants have popped up that will remove whey for use in energy bars, but they only reclaim 30% - 50% and the rest is dumped. We will never go backwards completely, but most modern agriculture has lost some valuable lessons from the past.
As much as I hate government interference in private business, this is an area I wish the USDA would step in on. Require a percentages of these exports of corn to be replaced by DDG.
As far as danger to engines, the only things you need to change in your vehicle, GM that is, is the fuel pump and injectors. That is the only difference between the regular and flexfuel vehicles. The sensors are all the same, and the computer adjusts the mixtures within 50 miles (keep that in mind if you are using blender pumps and changing your blend every tank). Most people up here use the E85 and base their decision on the 15% rule (E85 is advertised as getting 15% less mileage, so if they can save 15% or more on price they can break even or save money). Friends report that most GM's see a 5% reduction in mileage, Chryslers are close to 15%, with Ford somewhere in the middle, but close to GM.
As far as why farmers like ethanol - If we as citizens would be willing to pay them cost of production for their crops it never would have taken off. When we quit (went broke) farming I was selling corn for slightly over $1.00 per bushel. The government was giving me another approx. $0.50 per bushel on a portion, and they were paying me to store it in reserve for a number of years. The demands of the public for cheap food in the past combined with the current administrations lack of management of a stable reserve are what is driving much of this.
As for cow/calf producers - Imagine ranching in the western Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and a few other areas and using government leases for junk land. You are balancing on minimal feed for your animals and trucking in feed from hundreds of miles away. Then you have protesters and liberal politicians at best looking to raise your rents, but more accurately trying to force you off the land. Then enter people like Ted Turner and Jane Fonda and their friends, and conservation groups buying up millions of acres of land to stop ranching. Many of these ranchers are just saying that the return isn't worth the ulcers.
Another major factor we face is that most residents in this nation are two, three and even four generations removed from the land. Very few Americans know or understand where their food comes from. And even worse, most would starve to death looking at a fertile backyard and packages of seed.
My passion in this is where it ties in with the gun culture: Most people are so busy demonizing "change" that they miss all the good and benefits. The hot button issues today are Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), Ethanol, and antibiotics and hormones. GMO - Most people are blind to the fact that all GMO is is lab work that does in months what the farmer used to do over years in the field. It is creating hybrids by crossing plants to gain benefits. Whether crossbreeding or grafting nobody complained until they found it could be done overnight in the lab. Ethanol - I've pretty well beat that horse to death or at least it smells that way. Antibiotics and hormones - This did get out of balance in the fifties and sixties, but today it is pretty well used in the animal industry just like the human medical field.
I should quit looking at posts left to 200K and start looking at word count on my rants.
Bottom line - If you like meat take advantage of every sale and fill your freezer. Plant your gardens and learn to can foods. And make friends with a farmer or ten, because they are the ones that can raise what we all need.
Do you have access to a garden spot? A patch 20' x 60' of well managed soil will yield you 60# of edible dry beans, or 500 ears of sweet corn, or 120# of oats, or 60# of wheat. In a raised bed 3' x 20' a person can raise 200 onions, or 200 average red potatoes, or 100 quarts of tomatoes, or more cucumbers than I care to remember. My strangest experiment was to expand the kitchen herb garden on the window sill. I learned that a well managed 1' x 6' planter box sitting inside a south facing window will keep a person in fresh salad greens for a large salad every day.
Now that I have entered volume four of my rant I have also crossed from ripping our government's miss management into personal responsibility and preparedness.
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Topic: Get Ready For Revolt In the United States of America! (Read 5214 times)