Blame Corn Prices, Don’t Blame Farmers

Back in my college days not too many people know this about me, but I took a course called Grain Marketing Economics at the University of Minnesota.   It wasn’t because I had a dying urge to understand all the intricacies of the futures and commodity market trading as it related to grain.   Nope!   I took the class, rather, because it fulfilled a college economics course requirement and more than likely allowed me to sleep in (after those late night college parties).

CornSorry to say as with a few other classes I took 25+ years ago, I must confess I don’t remember a lot when it comes to marketing grain.   I remember it can make you or break you if you’re a speculator…depending, of course, on your skill level and how lady luck shines.   I remember that timing in the market is everything.   Arrive a day late or a day early and the difference can mean lots of $$$.

But one thing I’m pretty sure Professor Dahl did not mention to us was corn prices rocketing over the $7/bushel level.   And that’s exactly what has happened in recent days.   Indeed, prior to 2004 corn traded typically in the $2.50 level or below.   In fact, as recent as 2005 corn traded even below $1.80/bushel which really prompted farmers at that level to squeeze as many bushels to the acre out of their land as possible to show a profit.   Then late 2006 the cash price for corn seemed to depart from these long historic, fairly non-fluctuating levels seemingly now on an escalator ride to who knows where.

Okay, by no means am I an expert on this matter…let me make that perfectly straight…but it’s pretty easy to see that most of these escalating corn prices are due in large part to our nation’s quest for petroleum alternatives — ethanol, to be precise.   Indeed, farm commodities, especially corn, are seeing a financial boom the likes of which have never before been realized by the industry.

Translation to sportsmen.   Farmers are now seeing that idle CRP land or ground taken out of production by other government programs as a potential gold mine just waiting to be prospected.   That means habitat once vital for upland birds and wildlife is now increasingly going under the plow for a crop soaring to historic high price levels.

Now I know many sportsmen are down on farmers for doing this, but I’m not one of them.   At least not completely.   Let’s face it, when the opportunity allows a person to “shake the ol’ money tree” there are not too many of us that turn down that chance.   Look at it this way.   If you walked into your boss’ office and he offered you a promotion with a pay raise…would you turn them down?   Well, asking a farmer not to capitalize on an opportunity available to them is sort of the same thing.

The reality is farmers need to make their land pay for itself.   Sure, they may be conservationists at heart enjoying watching a bounding buck over the fence or listening to a pheasant crowing in a nearby field, but the simple reality is they farm to produce a living.   Most farmers I know do not carry on their business activities to do what’s best for wildlife first and foremost in their practices.

That being said, sportsmen need to realize that in most of farm country farming practices take precedent over wildlife management.   That’s not to say the two can’t work in concert with one another, but with $7 corn it’s a rare farmer who will overlook this highly attractive commodity and leave the ground fallow for a year.   Or even to plant parcels in switchgrass to help build the soil’s natural nutrients once again.

Nope, don’t expect those things to happen during the coming year.   Agreed, it doesn’t bode well for our upland birds such as pheasants squeezing every square inch of farmland for corn, but right now it happens to be reality.   Personally, I don’t like it but I’m not blaming the farmer, either.

Over the years sportsmen have so much to be thankful for to most farmers.   Even though wildlife may be a by-product of their usual farming practices, it’s a very important by-product to many of us.   These runaway gas prices are effecting nearly every aspect of our lives, and now we are even seeing the connection of how it is negatively effecting our upland bird and wild game hunting opportunities.   In all the insanity of this current world, the one thing we just cannot do is point the blame solely on farmers and their land practices.   I refuse to do that, even though I don’t happen to like what I am currently seeing.

2008 Jim Braaten. All Rights Reserved. No Reproduction without Prior Permission.