Grain & Oil

[cottonpicken]

Actually cowman/wd9 are not both industies complementry to one another.Its cheaper to ship meat/fuel to those 4 billion chindians than raw food stuffs.

[cowman]

cottonpickin: I too believe "eventually" the bio energy component of grain/oilseeds will benifit both grain farmers and beef producers....but getting there might not be a lot of fun!
The number of cow/calf producers leaving the industry is way up...at least in my area? Now without a doubt a lot of them are smaller older cattlemen but some big ones are pulling the pin too!
And that is okay, it seems there is always somebody willing to lay their money down(or probably the banks!) and get into the cow business! Whether they can make it or not remains to be seen? The guys leaving the industry right now could probably afford to stay and in fact could probably make a meager profit, but are getting too old to be working for nothing!
Consider what has happened to the hog business in Alberta? At one time there were all these prosperous hog farms...what is there today? The little guy has been wiped out and mostly what is left is the big mega barn? In my area we had a very good local market for barley from the local hog farmers. Today they are all gone.
I believe the cow/calf business is about where the hog business was about a dozen years ago. It is consolidating and small players are leaving. The small farmer/feeder is becoming a thing of the past.
When you lose these type of guys and they are replaced by the likes of Cargill feeding cattle...well expect tougher buyers for your feed grain!

[wd9]

CP, nope not even the EU. Not a single country.

Think of the manna from heaven Cdn oil companies and industry rec'd - ag for that matter too - with the last 2050 enviro plan. No matter what the cost of 2% or 5% RFS, it is a drop, nay, 1/10 of a drop in the bucket in terms of reduction of 35% GHG's. Even at a loss of a few cents per litre or 75% conversion efficiencies, not a burden compared to the alternative.

Anyone hear of the new bakers yeast that improves ethanol production by a considerable amount?

A snippet:

That used to be the case, however, as the Kluyver Centre for Genomics of Industrial Fermentation has established a revolutionary breakthrough in this field. Genomics techniques, applied genetic engineering and laboratory evolution have enabled the development of a new strain of bakers’ yeast, which can swiftly and efficiently convert xylose into ethanol. Patent applications have already been submitted for the discovery. And the Kluyver Centre’s industrial partners – primarily Koninklijke Nedalco and BIRD Engineering – are currently adapting the process for large-scale industrial production.

http://www.genomics.nl/Sustainability/Result%20Kluyver%20Centre%20biofuel.aspx