Word: ethanol
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...issue is more problematic. Demand has driven corn prices from $2 per bu. to more than $4 in the past 15 months. Those prices have since fallen back to about $3.70. But if they climb again as a result, for example, of a drought that cuts the yield, then ethanol distillers, cattle feeders, hog and dairy farmers will be the first to pay the price. Shelling out more for corn would eventually translate into more expensive ethanol, as well as higher prices for beef, pork, chicken, eggs and milk--movement that the market is already seeing. Hormel Foods, for instance...
Today 119 U.S. plants produce 6.14 billion gal. of corn ethanol a year, according to the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), an industry trade group. An additional 86 plants are being built or are expanding, which could account for 6.4 billion gal. more a year. But William Tierney, a risk-assessment consultant with John Stewart & Associates who specializes in corn ethanol, estimates that an additional 400 projects in various stages of development could add 28 billion gal. to the RFA's conservative figures. Add 5 billion to 10 billion unannounced gal. that Tierney expects to hit the market...
Still, in Yuma County, where gasoline costs around $3.35 per gal. in recent weeks--ethanol E85 fuel was $2.43 per gal.--seldom is heard a discouraging word. Even Brad Rock, who is being hit hard by rising feed prices for the 4,000 head of cattle on his Box Elder Ranch in nearby Wray, admits that the ethanol projects "are good for the community from a jobs perspective...
...Yuma Ethanol will create 40 jobs paying an average of $40,000 a year, well above the county's per capita income of $26,707. The Panda operation, valued at more than $120 million, plans to hire 500 construction workers, as well as a permanent staff of 50. Officials estimate both projects will generate $6 million in annual revenue that will help fund several ambitious water-conservation, construction and drainage projects...
Beyond that, restaurant owners say they're serving more customers. Tire vendors and diesel-fuel stations are busier, as 100 trucks a day will move through the Yuma Ethanol plant. Land prices are rising. And dealers expect to sell more pickups. Dennis Wagner, the sales manager of MV Equipment, where John Deere tractors cost $100,000 to $250,000, points out that "a farmer will be able to dictate when he can update his equipment, rather than have the economy dictate...