Ag Articles
Stay Informed, Stay Ahead: Explore our curated collection of the latest and most impactful articles on agriculture. From cutting-edge innovations to crucial industry insights, discover the knowledge you need to thrive in today’s agricultural landscape.
Is Sustainable Aviation Fuel the Future of Ethanol?
Source: FarmDoc Daily (February 26, 2024)
U.S. ethanol consumption has been stagnant for almost a decade. Limitations on the blending of ethanol with gasoline and EPA discretionary waivers have prevented any large-scale demand growth for corn-starch ethanol, and cellulosic ethanol has failed to catch fire because of technological, economic, and regulatory hurdles. Low carbon fuel standards in Western states like California provide additional sources of revenue, but these markets may not provide long-term growth opportunities as the same policies provide greater subsidies for electric vehicles and other biofuels that compete with corn-based ethanol. The aviation industry, on the other hand, is an untapped market seeking alternatives to fossil fuels…
CO2 Production by the U.S. Ethanol Industry and the Potential Value of Sequestration
Source: FarmDoc Daily (February 19, 2024)
There has long been an interest in the role of biofuels in “decarbonizing” the transportation sector in the U.S. An issue that has been receiving a great deal of attention lately is the potential for ethanol plants to lower their carbon footprint by sequestering CO2 that is generated by the ethanol production process. For example, several efforts are underway to construct pipelines to transport CO2 from ethanol plants to areas with suitable geologic formations for sequestration, a process that has not been without controversy (e.g., Douglas, 2022). Sequestration projects have been spurred by incentives included in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed by the U.S. Congress in 2022 and signed into law by President Biden. The purpose of this article is to estimate the total CO2 produced by the U.S. ethanol industry and the potential value to the industry of earning tax credits for sequestration…
When It Rains, It Pours: Extreme Precipitation & Nutrient Loss
Source: FarmDoc Daily (January 4, 2024)
January in the Midwest, a portion of the calendar that conjures memories of bitter cold, biting winds, and often snow. The holiday season was, however, unusually warm and fell well short of those remembrances of winters past (see e.g., Kraker, January 4, 2024). According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), including the National Weather Service (NWS), the outlook for winter 2023-2024 will be impacted by the continuing grip of a strong El Niño system. The result is likely higher temperatures than normal across much of the U.S, but mixed impacts on precipitation: possibly wetter-than-normal in the south; drier-than-normal in the north, including less snow (Becker, December 13, 2023; Johnson, November 30, 2023; L’Heureux and Brettschneider, October 26, 2023; NOAA, NWS, November 16, 2023). In the previous article for this series, we discussed the background on nutrient losses from farming and the impacts of extreme precipitation on those losses (farmdoc daily, December 7, 2023). Today’s article dives deeper into the issue with a focus on phosphorus…
USDA Agricultural Projections to 2031- Focus on Corn, Soybeans
Source: FarmDoc Daily (February 17, 2022)
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released its 10-year projections for the food and agricultural sector. In part, the baseline update explained that, “The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 is assumed to remain in effect through the projection period. The projections are one representative scenario for the agricultural sector and reflect a composite of model results and judgment-based analyses…
Where Did All the Crop Acres Go?
Source: FarmDoc Daily (June 21, 2021)
A recent farmdoc daily article (June 10, 2021) reported estimates of the total acreage base, or size of the “acreage pie,” for the U.S. over 1998-2020. The total was relatively stable from 1998 through 2014, near the average of 359.4 million acres. However, there was a puzzling 14.4 million acre drop in total crop acreage after 2014. This trend was first noted in earlier farmdoc daily articles (April 2, 2015; January 21, 2016). The purpose of this article is to investigate what happened to the missing U.S. crop acres…